President dissolves parliament, kicks off fast-paced electoral process
Controversial planning laws fall victim to parliament's dissolution
The President formally fired the starting gun for the general election on Monday evening when she accepted the prime minister’s request to dissolve parliament and signed the writ to hold a general election on May 30.
She kicked off a fast-paced process, which will now see the Electoral Commission issue public calls for the nomination of election candidates, the appointment of assistant electoral commissioners to man the polling stations, and the appointment of counting agents to assist in the vote count, even though the actual counting of votes will be electronic.
The commission is also responsible for the printing and distribution of the voting documents. It will also prepare the polling stations, usually housed in schools and local council offices.
The dissolution of parliament means that all pending legislation will now fall through, even if debate on the bills had started.
Among such legislation were controversial bills to amend the Development Planning Act and change the law governing the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal.
Also dropped were bills pending since 2022, amending the constitution "to strengthen the fundamental rights to freedom of expression and to privacy and media freedom" and another to strengthen the protection of journalists.
As in the past, the election will be held over 13 districts, with each district returning five MPs. When only candidates from two parties are elected to the House, the number of MPs will be increased to the closest possible proportion with the first count votes cast.
The number of MPs will then be further increased to ensure a gender balance of at least 60-40% in parliament. The boundaries of the electoral districts were last revised in April last year.