We’ve now got our first case of an Australian election delayed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Tasmania holds elections to its upper house on the first Saturday in May every year for 2-3 seats. This year those elections for Huon in the south-west of the state and Rosevears in the Launceston region were due on May 2. They have now been postponed to May 30. This will apparently give the Tasmanian Electoral Commission (TEC) time to encourage more use of postal and pre-poll voting to reduce contact between voters.

The Legislative Council elections in Huon and Rosevears are being pushed back to May 30. #politas pic.twitter.com/aakHpUHSN5 — WIN News Tasmania (@WINNews_Tas) March 23, 2020

This election is probably the closest Australian election to the most likely peak of the coronavirus pandemic in Australia (judging by some reporting I have seen).

I’ll keep posting updates as other changes are announced.

Following this Saturday’s elecitons in Queensland, and the Tasmanian elections in May, no more elections are scheduled until a very busy period from August to October, which will see local government elections in Australia’s two biggest states, a state election in Queensland and elections to the territorial assemblies in the ACT and the Northern Territory.

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