Electoral system of Australia

This article is about Commonwealth (federal) elections. For other uses, see Electoral systems of the Australian states and territories.

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The electoral system of Australia comprises the laws and processes used for the election of members of the Australian Parliament and is governed primarily by the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918. The system presently has a number of distinctive features including compulsory enrolment; compulsory voting; majority-preferential instant-runoff voting in single-member seats to elect the lower house, the House of Representatives; and the use of the single transferable vote proportional representation system to elect the upper house, the Senate.[1]

The timing of elections is governed by the Constitution and political conventions. Generally, elections are held approximately every three years and are conducted by the independent Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).

  1. ^ Scott Bennett and Rob Lundie, 'Australian Electoral Systems' Archived 29 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Research Paper no. 5, 2007–08, Department of the Parliamentary Library, Canberra.