preference whisperer strikes again as cannabis party hits high

While Mark McGowan is undoubtedly the man of the hour, he and at least 50 out of Labor’s 59 lower house candidates were not the only winners worth noting from Saturday’s astonishing result in Western Australia.

Once again, tiny micro-parties stand to win seats in the Legislative Council due to the workings of the group voting ticket system, even as more established small parties lost seats right (One Nation reduced from three in 2017 to zero) and left (the Greens down from four to probably one).

The potential beneficiary is another kind of green party: Legalise Cannabis, which is leading in the race for a seat in the South West region and stands a roughly even chance of scoring a second in East Metropolitan — in both cases from around 2.5% of the vote.