stui magpie wrote:Libs primary vote down 19%, Labor and Greens primary vote down 6% each.
So, while a number of people are clearly pissed off at the Libs for knifing Turnbull, there's also been a general rejection of the other 2 major parties.
Many Labor and Green voters were intelligent enough to vote tactically - indeed, they were quietly encouraged to do so prior to the poll. It was always going to be a three-horse race, and Sharma was always going to get the biggest primary vote.
This made the finishing order of the other two critical. Vote countng works like this:
1: they count all the primary votes.
2: they eliminate the lowest candidate and distribute his or her 2nd preferences between the remaining ones.
3: repeat (2) as often as necessary.
Eventually, they get down to the three main candidates. Once again, the one with the lowest number of votes is eliminated, and his or her preferences distributed. Think it through:
Suppose Phelps finises 3rd. She is eliminated. Roughly half her preferences go to Sharma, half to Murray. Sharma wins easily.
Now suppose Murray finises 3rd. He is eliminated. Roughly 100% of his preferences go to Phelps, practically none to Sharma. Phelps is elected.
For this reason, a lot of Green and Labor voters very sensibly put Phelps down as #1, to make sure of the really important thing, which is electing someone other than a Liberal.
The next election may well throw up lots of real candidates (i.e., people outside the Labor - Liberal - National machines) and with any luck quite a few will get elected. Let's hope so.
But the primary reason for the Sharma's defeat in this poll was nothing to do with him. It was payback from the people of this small part of Australia for the disgraceful conduct of the party he represents and Morrison leads. In other words, it wasn't Sharma, it was kharma.
