Next South Australian state election

Infobox Election Campaign
jurisdiction = sa
year = "next"
2002 2006 next
prev_election_year = 2006
prev_election_article = South Australian general election, 2006

gov_colour = red
gov_name = Australian Labor Party
gov_

opp_colour = blue
opp_name = Liberal Party of Australia
opp_

gov_leader = Mike Rann
gov_leader_since = 1994
gov_leader_rating = 48
opp_leader = Martin Hamilton-Smith
opp_leader_since = 2007
opp_leader_rating = 30

gov_2PP_rating = 50
gov_2PP_previous = 56.8
gov_seats = 28
gov_target = 0
gov_marginals = 4
gov_swing = 0.0
opp_2PP_rating = 50
opp_2PP_previous = 43.2
opp_seats = 15
opp_target = 9
opp_marginals = 6
opp_swing = 12.1

ref_leader_rating = [ [http://www.newspoll.com.au/cgi-bin/polling/display_poll_data.pl?mode=trend&page=continue_results&question_id=2437&url_caller= Newspoll/The Australian: Better Premier, Jul-Sep 2008] ]
ref_2PP_rating = [ [http://www.newspoll.com.au/cgi-bin/polling/display_poll_data.pl?mode=trend&page=continue_results&question_id=3491&url_caller= Newspoll/The Australian: Two Party Preferred, Jul-Sep 2008] ]
ref_marginals =

The next South Australian state election will elect members to the Parliament of South Australia, barring exceptional circumstances to be held on 20 March 2010. All seats in the House of Assembly or lower house, whose current members were elected at the 2006 election, and half the seats in the Legislative Council or upper house, last filled at the 2002 election, will become vacant. Like federal elections, South Australia has compulsory voting, uses full-preference instant-runoff voting in the lower house and single transferable vote group voting tickets in the upper house. The election will be conducted by the State Electoral Office of South Australia, an independent body answerable to Parliament.

Date

The last state election was held on 18 March 2006 to elect members for the House of Assembly and half of the members in the Legislative Council. In South Australia, section 28 of the Constitution Act 1934, as amended in 2001, directs that parliaments have fixed four-year terms, and elections must be held on the third Saturday in March every four years [cite web|url=http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/sa/consol_act/ca1934188/s28.html|title=Constitution Act 1934 - Section 28|author=State of South Australia|publisher=Australasian Legal Information Institute|accessdate=2007-12-26] —as such, bar exceptional circumstances, the election date of 20 March 2010 is known well ahead of time. [cite web|url=http://www.aph.gov.au/LIBRARY/Pubs/RN/2006-07/07rn10.pdf|title=Timetable for the next Australian elections|publisher=Parliamentary Library, Parliament of Australia|date=10 November 2006|id=ISSN 1449-8456|accessdate=2007-12-26] cite web|url=http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/RB/2005-06/06rb17.htm|title=Research Brief no. 17 2005–06 - Understanding State elections: South Australia and Tasmania 2006|last=Bennett|first=Scott|date=19 May 2006|publisher=Parliamentary Library, Parliament of Australia|accessdate=2007-12-26]

The election campaign must run for a minimum of 25 days or a maximum of 55 days, therefore the Governor will need to have issued writs for the election by 23 February 2010 at the latest. Between 7 and 10 days after that date, the electoral roll is closed, which gives voters a final opportunity to enrol or to notify the State Electoral Office of any changes in their place of residence. Candidates wishing to stand for election can nominate between the issue of the writs and no more than 14 days after the close of rolls for a deposit of $450. [cite web|url=http://www.seo.sa.gov.au/apps/uploadedFiles/news/276/SEO_QA06_13feb06.pdf|title=Electoral Questions & Answers|author=State Electoral Office, South Australia|date=13 February 2006|accessdate=2007-12-26]

House of Assembly

:"See also: 2006 election pendulum and maps"The Labor Party, led by Premier Mike Rann, and the Liberal Party, led by Opposition Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith, are the two main parties in South Australia. In the 2006 state election, of 47 seats total, Labor won 28 seats, Liberals won 15 seats and the Nationals, who are not in coalition with the Liberals in South Australia, retained their seat through minister Karlene Maywald (Chaffey). Three seats are held by independents, minister Rory McEwen (Mount Gambier), Bob Such (Fisher), and Kris Hanna (Mitchell). Smaller parties which hold no seats in the lower House but achieved significant votes in 2006 include the SA Greens and the Family First Party.

Legislative Council

Half of the upper house is up for election in 2010, four Labor and five Liberal, one Family First and one Democrat.

No Pokies MP Nick Xenophon, re-elected in 2006 until 2014, was replaced by former No Pokies candidate John Darley after Xenophon's resignation to run for the Australian Senate at the 2007 federal election in which he was successful.

Former Liberal MP Robert Brokenshire replaced Family First MP Andrew Evans as an MLC in 2008.

Retiring

Liberal

*Rob Kerin, MHA in Frome. Preselection is Port Pirie policeman Terry Boylan.
*Graham Gunn, MHA in Stuart. Preselection is former national basketball player Dan Van Holst Pellekaan.
*Liz Penfold, MHA in Flinders. Preselection is likely to be Australian Farmers' Federation Grains Council chairman Peter Treloar.
*Caroline Schaefer, MLC.

Labor

*Lea Stevens, MHA in Little Para. Lee Odenwalder is the frontrunner for preselection, who is currently a staffer for Wakefield MP Nick Champion.

Other

*Rory McEwen, Independent MHA in Mount Gambier. Liberal preselection is Mount Gambier Mayor Steve Perryman.

Referendum

Since the Federation of Australia, Labor has not favoured upper houses, due to a lack of universal suffrage (until the 1970s in SA), and also the belief that too much power lies in the upper as opposed to the lower. Before the 2006 election, current Labor premier Mike Rann said, "In 2010, at the time of the state election, there'll be a referendum and people can either vote to keep the Upper House as it is, vote for reform to reduce the number of MPs and give them four year-terms rather than eight-year terms. Or finally abolish the Upper House." [ [http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2005/s1515919.htm ABC News. "Mike Rann calls for abolition of Upper House"] . 29-11-2005. Accessed 19-01-2007.]

Polling

Newspoll polling is conducted via random telephone number selection in city and country areas. Sampling sizes consist of around 800-900 electors. The declared margin of error is ±3.5 percent.

{| class="toccolours" align="left" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin-right: .5em; margin-top: .4em;font-size: 90%;"
-
+House of Assembly opinion polling
-!style="background-color:#" align="center"
!style="background-color:#cccccc" align="center" colspan=7|Political parties!style="background-color:#EBBCE3" align="center" colspan=2|Two party preferred
-!style="background-color:#" align="center"
!style="background-color:#" align="center" |ALP!style="background-color:#" align="center" |Lib!style="background-color:#" align="center" |Nat!style="background-color:#" align="center" |Dem!style="background-color:#" align="center" |FFP!style="background-color:#" align="center" |Grn!style="background-color:#" align="center" |Oth!style="background-color:#" align="center" |ALP!style="background-color:#" align="center" |Lib
-! align="center" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |Jul – Sep 2008
align="center" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |38%
align="center" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |40%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |1%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |1%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |1%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |8%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |11%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="FF6666" |50%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="00BFFF" |50%
-! align="center" bgcolor="" |Apr – Jun 2008
align="center" bgcolor="" |41%
align="center" bgcolor="" |35%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |1%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |0%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |2%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |12%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |9%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="FF6666" |54%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="00BFFF" |46%
-! align="center" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |Jan – Mar 2008
align="center" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |41%
align="center" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |37%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |< .5%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |1%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |1%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |8%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |10%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="FF6666" |53%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="00BFFF" |47%
-! align="center" bgcolor="" |Oct &ndash; Dec 2007
align="center" bgcolor="" |42%
align="center" bgcolor="" |36%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |1%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |2%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |3%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |7%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |9%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="FF6666" |54%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="00BFFF" |46%
-! align="center" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |Jul &ndash; Sep 2007
align="center" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |48%
align="center" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |33%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |1%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |2%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |2%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |6%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |8%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="FF6666" |59%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="00BFFF" |41%
-! align="center" bgcolor="" |Apr &ndash; Jun 2007
align="center" bgcolor="" |47%
align="center" bgcolor="" |35%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |1%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |1%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |2%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |5%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |9%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="FF6666" |57%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="00BFFF" |43%
-! align="center" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |Jan &ndash; Mar 2007
align="center" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |48%
align="center" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |29%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |1%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |4%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |2%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |6%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="e9e9e9" |10%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="FF6666" |61%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="00BFFF" |39%
-! align="center" bgcolor="" |Oct &ndash; Dec 2006
align="center" bgcolor="" |47%
align="center" bgcolor="" |33%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |1%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |2%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |3%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |4%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |10%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="FF6666" |58%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="00BFFF" |42%
-! align="center" bgcolor="B0E9DB" |2006 Election
align="center" bgcolor="B0E9DB" |45.2%
align="center" bgcolor="B0E9DB" |34%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="B0E9DB" |2.1%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="B0E9DB" |2.9%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="B0E9DB" |5.9%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="B0E9DB" |6.5%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="B0E9DB" |3.4%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="FF6666" |56.8%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="00BFFF" |43.2%
-! align="center" bgcolor="" |15 &ndash; 16 Mar 2006
align="center" bgcolor="" |46%
align="center" bgcolor="" |33%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |1.5%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |1.5%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |3%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |4%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="" |11%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="FF6666" |57%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="00BFFF" |43%
-! align="center" bgcolor="B0E9DB" |2002 Election
align="center" bgcolor="B0E9DB" |36.3%
align="center" bgcolor="B0E9DB" |40%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="B0E9DB" |1.5%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="B0E9DB" |7.5%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="B0E9DB" |2.6%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="B0E9DB" |2.4%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="B0E9DB" |9.7%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="FF6666" |49.1%
align="center" width="" bgcolor="00BFFF" |50.9%
-
style="font-size: 80%" colspan=11 bgcolor="#cceeff" align="center"| [http://www.newspoll.com.au/cgi-bin/polling/display_poll_data.pl?url_caller=&mode=trend&page=show_polls&question_set_id=14 Polling] conducted by Newspoll and published in The Australian.

References

See also

* South Australian state election, 2006