1,514 candidates nationwide to contest 2019 election

A total of 1,514 candidates have nominated to contest the 18 May federal election, the Australian Electoral Commission announced this evening.

The national figures include 458 candidates contesting 40 Senate vacancies and 1,056 candidates for the 151 House of Representatives divisions across Australia.

The national total for the 2019 federal election is slightly lower than the 1,625 candidates who stood at the 2016 event.

The 2019 candidate nominations were officially declared at 12 noon (local time) today at public events held across the country, followed immediately by a draw for ballot paper positions.

The declarations represent a milestone in the huge logistical operation that is a federal election – over 50 million ballot papers will be printed and distributed in the coming few days and early voting will begin on 29 April 2019.

Between next Monday and 6pm on election day, 18 May, a record 16.4 million Australians are enrolled and able to cast their votes at more than 8,000 polling locations over the period.

Voter services will include early-voting centres, mobile-polling teams visiting hospitals and remote areas, election-day polling places and interstate voting centres, overseas voting venues, and other offshore locations such as Norfolk Island and Antarctica.

Note to editors:

Of the 458 Senate candidates, 280 are males and 178 females, and of the 1,056 House candidates, there are 714 males, 341 females and one not identified.

A summary table of the number of nominations for House and Senate elections in each state and territory is below, and lists of candidates for each jurisdiction are available at https://www.aec.gov.au/election/candidates.htm

At the 2016 federal election, there were 150 House seats, whereas 151 will be contested at the 2019 federal election. This is due to a change in entitlement for Victoria and the ACT (one additional seat each) and in South Australia (one less seat). Boundary redistributions were conducted to establish new boundaries, and in some cases names, in accordance with the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918.

All 76 positions in the Senate were contested in 2016 as it was a double-dissolution election, compared with 40 positions this time. For this election, a “half-Senate” election will occur in all States tallying, 36 positions. The Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory have two Senators each, and their positions are contested at every federal election.

Number of nominations by state/territory in the 2019 federal election

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES BREAKDOWN
State/territory		Seats	2019 nominations	2016 nominations
New South Wales		47	315	314
Victoria*		38	258	259
Queensland		30	223	204
Western Australia		16	132	86
South Australia***		10	65	72
Tasmania		5	32	30
Australian Capital Territory**		3	19	9
Northern Territory		2	12	20
AUSTRALIA		151	1056	994
Victoria was entitled to 37 seats at the 2016 federal election. This has now increased to 38 seats. The ACT was entitled to 2 seats at the 2016 federal election. This has now increased to 3 seats. **South Australia was entitled to 11 seats at the 2016 election. This has now decreased to 10 seats.
SENATE BREAKDOWN
State/territory	No. of vacancies		2019 nominations	2016 nominations*
New South Wales	6		105	151
Victoria	6		82	116
Queensland	6		83	122
Western Australia	6		67	79
South Australia	6		42	64
Tasmania	6		44	58
Australian Capital Territory	2		17	22
Northern Territory	2		18	19
AUSTRALIA	40		458	631