If interest is measured by the number of nominations, then the 2020 Queensland election is certainly attracting a lot of interest.
A record 597 candidates have nominated, an average of 6.4 candidates per seat. It easily surpasses the record 453 candidates that contested the 2017 Queensland election.
There are five electorates with nine candidates, and two with 10 candidates, a record number of nominations for one electorate at a Queensland state election.
The chart below demonstrates the dramatic increase in nominations for the 2020 election. The chart shows both total nominations and average candidates per seat.
The table below breaks down nominations by party for elections since 2012.
As usual, the Labor Party and the LNP are contesting every seats and have nominated 93 candidates each.
The Greens have also nominated 93 seats, the Greens contesting all seats since the 2009 election.
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation is contesting a record 90 electorates, more than the 79 candidates the party nominated at its first election in 1998. The party nominated 39 candidates for the 2001 election.
By the 2004 election, Pauline Hanson had left the party and her name was removed from the party name. As One Nation the party nominated 51 candidates for the 2004 election, followed by 4 (2006), 2 (2009), 6 (2012) and 11 (2015). With Pauline Hanson returning and her name pre-fixing the party, it nominated 61 candidates at the 2017 election and now 90 in 2020.
The three seats not being contested by One Nation are Hill and Traeger, both held by Katter’s Australian Party, and the LNP held seat of Callide.
The United Australia Party (or Clive Palmer’s UAP as it appears on the ballot paper) has nominated 55 candidates. That is up from the 50 candidates that were nominated from the then Palmer United Party at the 2015 election. The party was de-registered ahead of the 2017 state election.
Katter’s Australian Party first contested the 2012 election when it nominated 76 candidates. Due to a mistaken understanding of the Electoral Act, candidates appeared on ballot papers listed as ‘Australian Party’. With its full party name, KAP nominated 11 candidates in 2015, 10 in 2017, and 13 at the 2020 election.
There are couple of new parties in 2020, with the Informed Medical Options Party nominating 31 candidates, and Legalise Cannabis Queensland 23.
Ten candidates have nominated for Mermaid Beach and Mudgeeraba, nine in Buderim, Marochydore, McConnell, Rockhampton and Townsville.
My comments below relate to elections since 1986. I have not trawled back through the previous 120 years of Queensland elections, but I expect what I say to be true.
The most number of candidates that have previously nominated in one seat at a Queensland general election is nine, in South Brisbane in 2009, Brisbane Central in 2001, and South Brisbane in 1998.
More candidates have contested by-elections. 12 in Surfers Paradise (2201) and Mindingburra 1996), and 10 in South Coast in 1988.
All nominations have now been published on the ABC website.