How did John Howard lose his own seat?

Question

He clearly won more votes than his opponent:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_of_Bennelong

How did he lose his seat? He beat his opponent by a small margin and he should've held on to the seat. Doesn't Australia use First past the post like my country (Canada) where the candidate whom receives the most votes becomes the MP regardless of margins?

Answer 1

You spotted the screwed up system that we have. Not only do they prevent you from voting for just one person, but its also illegal not to vote.

Answer 2

If you get more than 50% of the votes, you win. If you get less than 50% they eliminate the candidate who got the least votes and split their preferences to the other candidates. They do this until one candidate has more than 50% of the vote. More than 50% of people must 'prefer' the winner over the other potential.

The alternative systems involve either multiple votes or a system where someone can be elected even though most people would rather anyone else.

John Howard got 45.49% of the PRIMARY vote, that is people that wanted to elect him. 39,551 votes. After all the people that didn't vote for him but prefered him over Maxine McKew were counted he got up to 42,251 votes. His rival Maxine McKew got 39,408 primary votes, but after preferences got 44,685. So of the 86,936 people that voted most of them indicated on their ballots that they would rather elect Maxine McKew.

When you vote here you number the boxes, 1,2,3....etc. So you can vote for whoever you like, and even if they are unlikely to win, your vote still counts as you have indicated who you would prefer to win if your candidate is eliminated, it goes to your next prefered candidate etc etc until one candidate has more than 50%.

Answer 3

The reason for your confusion is that Australia does not use a "first past the post" system but rather a preferential voting system.

In Australian elections each voter votes by numbering the candidates 1, 2, 3, ... etc. When it comes time to count the votes, the first step is to count all of the first preference votes (which candidate is marked with a #1). If a candidate wins more than 50% of the votes on first preferences, the count is all over and that candidate wins the seats. If not, then the candidate with the smallest number of votes is removed and the next preference on the ballots gets their votes. That keeps happening until one candidate has more than 50% of the votes.

In the case of Bennelong, Howard won more of the first preference votes, but Maxine McKew won on the basis that more people who gave their first preferences to a minor party candidate chose to put her ahead of John Howard, meaning that she was ultimately able to win the seat. The wikipedia entry shows a "2-party preferred" figure, and that is the number that gets used to decide who wins the seat.

The process for electing Senators is even more complicated, and frankly I don't believe that most Aussies understand it either.

Answer 4

John Howard lost Prime Minister to Kevin Rudd by approx 40% vs 60%

He also lost his local seat of bennalong (spelling) to the labor party, the opponate had a higher % of votes, therefore losing his standing althogether

Answer 5

He was out voted because he told too many lies insulted our intelligence and took our work rights away from us which have been reinstated by the the new Labour government...good riddance to bad rubbish

Answer 6

There are pluses and minuses in preferential voting systems, and I thought, actually that at least one province in Canada uses some variant of preferenctial, but in any case, it does lead to people getting a chance to influence whom they'd least like to have elected, as well as who they like the most. That seems to ensure less discontent from non-followers of the one who got elected, though it has in the past been used to split the vote. Choices were made as to which system to follow - look up multi-member electorates if you want to get a real head-buzz!

Answer 7

Most people gave you the correct guts on why he lost.

I think that compulsory voting and the Preferential voting system is what makes this country great.

If you were not forced to vote and have your say,you would be dirt poor like most working class Americans.

Don't believe me,go take a look,the poor don't vote there.

The way Howard was taking this country,it was going to be like the US for most of us.

Thank God the workers have to vote!!!

Answer 8

Who the h**l is John Howard?

Answer 9

john howard is our exPM

year u r right but it was saying there that he had been beaten

hey wats it like in canada, im coming for an exchange year so i jt wanna know?