2013 Lyndhurst state by-election

A by-election for the seat of Lyndhurst in the Victorian Legislative Assembly was held on 27 April 2013. The by-election was triggered by the resignation of Labor Party (ALP) member Tim Holding on 18 February 2013.^[1] Martin Pakula retained the seat for Labor.^[2]

2013 Lyndhurst state by-election

27 April 2023

First party Second party Third party   FFP DLP Candidate Martin Pakula Stephen Nowland Geraldine Gonsalvez Party Labor Family First Democratic Labour Popular vote 12,899 4,454 3,467 Percentage 41.0% 14.1% 11.0% Swing 14.5 9.3 9.8 TPP 57.0% 43.0% TPP swing 6.9 43.0

MP before election Tim Holding Labor Elected MP Martin Pakula Labor

Dates

The writ for the by-election was issued on 5 March 2013. The electoral roll in Lyndhurst closed on 12 March, and the final date for candidates to nominate was 28 March. Registration of how-to-vote cards^[3] closed on 18 April. Polling day was 27 April.^[4]

Candidates

Candidates in ballot paper order for the by-election were:^[2]

Candidate nominations
	Australian Sex Party	Martin Leahy	Contested Ferntree Gully for the Sex Party in 2010.
	Greens	Nina Springle	Community worker. Contested Lyndhurst for the Greens in 2010.
	Independent	Hung Vo	Contested Lyndhurst as an independent in 2010.
	Independent	Bobby Singh	Contested Division of Holt for the Palmer United Party in 2013.[5]
	Family First Party	Stephen Nowland	School worker, registered builder.
	Independent	David Linaker	Lost VCAT case to appear on the electoral roll as David Linaker-Liberal. Contested 2012 Niddrie by-election as an independent.
	Labor Party	Martin Pakula	Lawyer and previously an industrial officer, state secretary, and national vice-president of the NUW. Labor member of the Victorian Legislative Council seat of Western Metropolitan Region from 2006 to 2013.
	Democratic Labour Party	Geraldine Gonsalvez	Dandenong councillor from 2000 to 2003. Contested Victorian Legislative Council seat of South Eastern Metropolitan Region for the DLP in 2006 and 2010 and was on the Victorian DLP Senate ticket in 2010.

The Liberal Party declined to nominate a candidate for the by-election.^[1]

How-to-vote cards

How-to-vote cards are distributed to voters at polling stations to provide information about how the candidate suggests preferences be allocated. Candidates and parties suggesting preferences are shown in each column of the table below. The Sex Party released a card with two preferences allocated, one favoring Labor and the other favoring the Greens. The Greens ran an open card at this by-election.^[6]

	Sex		Greens	Vo	Singh	Family First	Linaker	Labor	DLP
Sex	1	1		8	5	7	7	3	7
Greens	3	2	1	6	7	8	8	4	8
Vo	4	4		1	4	3	2	5	3
Singh	5	5		7	1	5	5	6	4
Family First	7	7		3	2	1	3	7	2
Linaker	6	6		2	8	4	1	8	5
Labor	2	3		5	6	6	6	1	6
DLP	8	8		4	3	2	4	2	1

Results

Lyndhurst state by-election, 2013^[7][8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Martin Pakula	12,899	41.0	–14.5
	Family First	Stephen Nowland	4,454	14.1	+9.3
	Democratic Labour	Geraldine Gonsalvez	3,467	11.0	+9.8
	Independent	Hung Vo	3,070	9.7	+6.2
	Greens	Nina Springle	2,960	9.4	+3.3
	Sex Party	Martin Leahy	2,635	8.4	+8.4
	Independent	David Linaker	1,370	4.4	+4.4
	Independent	Bobby Singh	639	2.0	+2.0
Total formal votes			31,494	90.5	–2.4
Informal votes			3,288	9.5	+2.4
Turnout			34,782	80.1	−12.4
Two-candidate-preferred result
	Labor	Martin Pakula	17,961	57.0	–6.9
	Family First	Stephen Nowland	13,533	43.0	+43.0
	Labor hold		Swing	N/A

The results are final.^[9] Pre-poll and postal votes were included on election night upon which media outlets called the by-election for Labor.^[10][11][12] The full preference distribution occurred on 1 May.^[13]

See also

• List of Victorian state by-elections