Bjelkemander

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The Bjelkemander was the term given to a system of malapportionment in the Australian state of Queensland in the 1970s and 1980s.^[1] Under the system, electorates were allocated to zones such as rural or metropolitan and electoral boundaries drawn so that rural electorates had about half as many voters each as metropolitan ones. The Country Party (later National Party), a rural-based party led by Joh Bjelke-Petersen, was able to govern uninhibited during this period due to the 'Bjelkemander' and the absence of an upper house of Parliament.