UPPER house powerbroker James Purcell has opted not to run candidates from his Vote1 Local Jobs Party at the impending Western District by-elections.
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The Western Victoria MP told The Standard he was considering running two well-known candidates in the South West Coast and Polwarth constituencies but Labor’s lack of interest in contesting the seats thwarted the plan.
Mr Purcell said the Liberal Party was now highly likely to win both electorates because of the wide field without the government party to counter-balance the flow of preferences.
“We would have had a decent go at South West Coast and Polwarth had the Labor Party stood candidates,” the former Moyne Shire mayor said. “We had a well-known candidate ready and able to run in South West Coast.
“However, you have to assess the political dynamics if you want to undertake a serious campaign and without the Labor element in the race, it takes a lot of the life out of the contest.
“The Liberal Party are highly likely to win South West Coast, they have the money and campaigners to get their candidate across the line. There’s even less of a contest in Polwarth because there are less candidates standing- the Liberal Party will win without much of a contest there.”
Mr Purcell ran against Liberal MP Denis Napthine at the 2010 state election as an independent candidate and received 11.5 per cent of the primary vote.
The Port Fairy accountant founded the Vote1 Local Jobs Party ahead of the 2014 state election and won the fifth seat for Western Victoria upper house region.
Mr Purcell encouraged South West Coast voters to back one of the independent candidates, although he did not want to endorse one contender over the other.
“From my own experience in Parliament, it’s good to have someone who examines each vote on its merits rather than just toeing the party line,” he said. “I’ve seen instances where MPs (from either party) had no idea what they had just voted for, they just moved to the side of the chamber where their colleagues were. Being a member of Parliament shouldn’t be about that.”
Ten candidates will run at the South West Coast by-election while eight candidates had registered to stand in Polwarth constituency late on Thursday.
