THOUSANDS of West Australians will be asked by the Electoral Commission to explain their failure to vote after the Perth and Fremantle by-elections recorded the lowest turnout since compulsory voting was implemented almost a century ago.

Almost 75,000 voters in Perth and Fremantle are facing $20 fines for not voting, or $50 if they are repeat offenders — unless they provide a good reason.

Election analyst William Bowe said the low voter turnout could be explained by a lack of awareness of the campaign.

“There was a perfunctory amount of campaigning from Labor and absolutely none whatsoever from anybody else,” he said. “I just think it was an awareness issue and people did not know it was on or they forgot.

“I guess the big answer though is that the Liberals did not field a candidate. If they had done, turnout would have been a lot higher.

“There’s two factors, either potential Liberal voters can’t be bothered so they pay the fine or they come up with an excuse, or there’s no Liberal candidate so there’s no sense of excitement and nothing going on to suggest it’s happening, such as visits to the electorate from the Prime Minister.”

In Perth, where the turnout was just 62 per cent, new MHR Patrick Gorman said the historically low level was disappointing.

“We are a country where we believe in compulsory voting so having a low turnout means that we haven’t delivered the election that we intend as a country, so I don’t think our community benefits,” Mr Gorman said.

“I will be interested to see what (the post-election) review shows up, but clearly the AEC has to think about their approach when it comes to by-elections differently.”

The Electoral Commission, which conducted similar awareness campaigns across each of the five by-election electorates, said voters would be issued with notices where the fine was $20.

Returning Fremantle MP Josh Wilson said the levels could be attributed to the fact the Liberals did not contest the seat.

“I’m a supporter of democratic participation and I think you always want to see as many people turn out as possible,” Mr Wilson said.

“Of course you would like to see a larger turnout. The by-election in the West didn’t receive as much national attention, the Liberals were not running and to some degree you think there would be some disappointed voters who may have stayed home.

“But we still have close to 70,000 people coming up to express their vote and certainly the result was a strong one for us here in Freo.”