A rightwing provocateur\u2019s plan to register the \u201cFree Palestine party\u201d and use it to funnel votes to conservative parties in Victoria\u2019s state election has renewed concern over the state\u2019s voting system.<\/p>\n
Avi Yemini, a former Israeli soldier and self-styled investigative journalist who creates content for his YouTube channel, Rebel News Australia, on Tuesday announced plans to register the party, which he said would \u201cflow our preferences on to parties that want to free Palestine from Hamas\u201d in the November poll.<\/p>\n
He said he had been inspired by the anti-lockdown activist Monica Smit, who in February announced she would seek to register the \u201cSave the Environment party\u201d to influence the election result.<\/p>\n
Yemini and Smit\u2019s plans rely on the Victoria\u2019s upper house remaining the only house of parliament in Australia still using the group voting ticket system (GVTs)<\/a>, in which voters are only able to choose one party above the line on the ballot paper. The voters\u2019 preferences are then allocated by the party if it is knocked out during counting.<\/p>\n The system has allowed backroom deals between parties to flourish, with some candidates getting elected with only a minuscule number of primary votes. The most prominent player is Glenn Druery, the so-called \u201cpreference whisperer\u201d.<\/p>\n In his video, Yemini said Smit\u2019s party would \u201ctake voters\u201d from the left and \u201credistribute their votes back to conservative parties\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt inspired me and got me thinking, what\u2019s the one issue that unites all useful idiots, from the far left to the fringe right to certain immigrant cultures that have imported their hate? Who? Free Palestine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cImagine they walked into a polling booth and they saw Free Palestine party. It\u2019s genius. I am launching the Free Palestine party and we are going to redistribute, we\u2019re going to flow our preferences on to parties that want to free Palestine from Hamas.\u201d<\/p>\n Yemini said he was seeking members to join the party so he could register with the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC). He claimed Victoria was the only state left with GVTs as they had benefited the Labor party.<\/p>\n