The Electoral Commission of Queensland says following the close of nominations and the completion of the ballot paper order draw, candidates for the 2020 State general election can be formally announced.

Electoral Commissioner Pat Vidgen said there are 597 candidates across Queensland’s 93 electorates competing for Queenslanders’ votes in 2020.

“This year’s State general election sees 144 more candidates than in 2017, where 453 ran for parliament.

“A vibrant democracy needs a strong contest of ideas and it’s exciting to see a record-breaking 12 registered political parties endorsing candidates, as well as a large cohort of non-endorsed candidates, all throwing their hat into the political ring to vie for the opportunity to represent their communities in State Parliament.

“Queenslanders can now find the candidates running in their electorate via the ECQ’s 2020 State general election webpage.”

Mr Vidgen said the printing of ballot papers will now begin following the ballot paper order draw, and that also means postal votes will start to go out to electors who have applied for them.

“Postal votes will start being sent from tomorrow, 12 October, but due to the large number of applications to date, ballot material will be sent progressively.

“Once an elector receives their envelope, we urge them act immediately and vote, sign, witness and send their envelope back to the ECQ.

“For postal votes to be included in the count they must be back to the ECQ by 10 November at the very latest, so getting them in the mail sooner, is better,” he said.

Mr Vidgen said the large number of candidates in this election will also have an impact on the time taken to count and there may be a more complex and time-consuming distribution of preferences, especially where there is a large number of candidates contesting the seat.

A list of all candidates is available on the ECQ website in ballot paper order here.

The non-endorsed and political party candidate numbers are listed below:

• 93 Australian Labor Party (State of Queensland)
• 93 Liberal National Party of Queensland
• 93 Queensland Greens
• 90 Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Queensland Division
• 55 Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party
• 31 Informed Medical Options Party
• 23 Legalise Cannabis QLD (Party)
• 16 Civil Liberties and Motorists Party
• 13 Animal Justice Party (Queensland)
• 13 Katter’s Australia Party
• 5 North Queensland First
• 3 Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party (QLD)
• 69 non-endorsed/independent.