Australia deputy PM by-election win boosts coalition
AUSTRALIA’S deputy prime minister has easily won a crucial by-election triggered by a dualcitizenship crisis that threatened the ruling coalition’s grip on power.
Barnaby Joyce’s emphatic reelection in the Saturday poll brought relief to a government which lost its slim parliamentary majority over the citizen- ship saga, and as it battled falling voter support and internal division.
“This has been a stunning victory,” Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Saturday in Tamworth, a city in Joyce’s seat in New South Wales state.
Counting was ongoing but Joyce had so far picked up 64.6 percent of the vote, with his closest rival Labor’s David Ewings at 11.3 percent.
Several members of the ruling Liberal-National coalition were turfed out of their seats after the High Court in October reaffirmed a constitutional provision barring dual citizens from serving in federal parliament.
In the lower House of Representatives, where the coalition held a narrow one-seat majority, Joyce and former tennis star John Alexander had to recontest their seats in by-elections.
Joyce had automatically acquired New Zealand citizenship through his father, and renounced his Kiwi nationality to allow him to run again.
Alexander resigned from parliament after saying he was most likely a dual British citizen, but it was revealed later that it was unclear if he was even entitled to UK nationality.
The loss of Joyce and Alexander pending the by-election out- comes cost the government its majority, although Turnbull said he could continue ruling with the support of independents.
Alexander, whose by-election is on December 16, could restore the coalition’s majority with victory, but faces a tougher fight than Joyce for his Bennelong seat in Sydney where the main opposition Labor Party hopes to capitalise on Turnbull’s problems.