5 Australian MPs ousted over dual citizenship
Canberra, May 9: Five Australian parliamentarians were ousted on Wednesday for holding dual citizenship when they were elected. It comes as fresh blow to Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull's majority in the House.
In what was widely viewed as a fresh test case, a high court ruled Senator Katy Gallagher ineligible, the BBC reported.
Four other politicians, who were also under scrutiny resigned after the verdict.
Gallagher and lower house MPs Justine Keay, Josh Wilson and Susan Lamb are members of the opposition Labor party. The fifth MP, Rebekha Sharkie, is part of minor party Centre Alliance.
In 2017, 10 MPs and senators were removed from office for violating a constitutional rule that prohibits federal political candidates from being dual nationals, the BBC report said.
The dual citizenship saga has destabilised Australian politics since July 2017, at times threatening Turnbull's majority in the House of Representatives.
Turnbull could increase his majority if he wins any of the vacant lower house seats, the BBC reported.
Gallagher was aware of her British passport as her father was born in England, so the court ruled that she did not take "all reasonable steps" to relinquish her British links, Xinhua news agency reported.
The High Court of Australia ruled that Gallagher's seat would be filled by counting back votes from the 2016 federal election.
The other politicians are expected be replaced in the same way, or through a by-election.
Gallagher had referred herself to the court in 2017 after questions emerged over whether she had renounced her British citizenship in time to run for office.
"To the people of the (Australian Capital Territory), I'm very sorry that this disruption has occurred to one of your federal representatives," she said on Wednesday.
Labor leader Bill Shorten said three of the ousted MPs would seek re-election.
Shorten said his party had relied on an older interpretation of Section 44(a), a much-debated rule in the constitution, that says members of parliament cannot continue to have citizenship in another country, and must prove they took "all reasonable steps" to renounce the other citizenship before being elected.
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Confident we are going to win Kerala: Shashi Tharoor
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday expressed confidence in the victory of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, saying the Congress-led alliance will win more than 75 seats out of the total 140 in the state.
Tharoor, who hails from Kerala, said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls, most of which predicted a victory for the UDF that has been out of power for 10 years in the state.
"We have been on the ground. I have campaigned in 59 constituencies across 12 districts out of 14. I was very confident we are going to win.
"Everything that I have picked up from not just my party colleagues and workers but also from other observers, media and others have always convinced me that we were going to score a comfortable win of above 75 seats. And all the (exit) polls have confirmed the same thing," he told reporters here.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls but in general he was not a big fan of exit polls in India.
"Because ours is not purely a homogenous society. We have to take into account gender issue, caste issue, class issue, regional disparities. You never get a convincingly large enough sample to give an accurate poll and now there is the additional complication that we have heard about in West Bengal this year that many people are unwilling to answer the questions of the pollsters," he said.
The Congress leader said normally, it used to be below 10 per cent that people said that they would not answer.
"Even if you are a reputable exit pollster, in Bengal, one polling company has said 60 per cent of people refused to answer. So, what is the worth of a poll where 60 per cent of your respondents have not answered," he said.
Several exit polls on Wednesday predicted a comeback by the Congress-led UDF in Kerala after 10 years, dethroning the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Polling for the 140-member Kerala assembly was held on April 9. Results of assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Puducherry, besides Kerala, will be announced on May 4.
