The election of Australian lawmakers, Gladys Liu and Josh Frydenberg, is being challenged in court over Chinese-language campaign posters used during the May 2019 Australian parliamentary election.

Controversial Poster

The posters, which appeared at polling booths in Liu’s Chisholm and Frydenberg’s Kooyong electorates in Melbourne on election day, were printed in the same purple and white colours used by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).

According to Australia’s SBS News, the words translate to: “The right way to vote: On the green ballot paper fill in 1 next to the candidate of Liberal Party and fill in the numbers from smallest to largest in the rest of the boxes.”

Frydenberg’s election win is being challenged by independent candidate Oliver Yates, who ran against him in the seat of Kooyong. Frydenberg won the seat with 55.7% of the votes. 

Liu, on the other hand, won the seat in Chisholm with 50.57% of the votes. Her election win is being challenged by constituent members Naomi Leslie Hall and Vanessa Garbett.

The petitioners argued, citing infringement of the electoral act, that the signs were misleading and instructed voters to vote for the Liberal party’s candidates which, in this instance, were Liu and Frydenberg.

In their responses, as noted by The Guardian, both Liu and Frydenberg admitted that the translation meant “correct way to vote” but claim that it was intended to mean “to make your vote count put a ‘1’ next to the Liberal candidate.”

The posters were authorised by Simon Frost who, at the time, was the Liberal party’s acting state director. According to court filings, Frost “sought to explain to voters who could read Chinese and who were considering voting for the Liberal party how to do so in a valid way, and also to encourage voters who had not yet made up their mind to vote for the Liberal party.”

The AEC has ruled out taking action against either politician and has asked the federal court to throw out the cases. It argued that there were no rules regarding the use of colours in campaign posters and that there was no proof that voters changed their minds after seeing the posters.

Other Issues

The election challenge is one of the controversies facing Hong Kong-born Liu, who is also under fire over alleged links to the Chinese Communist Party.

Frydenberg’s eligibility to sit in parliament has also been challenged. A Kooyong resident Michael Staindl claimed that he is a Hungarian citizen, a claim Frydenberg refutes.

If the court rules that these Australian election results are invalid, this could threaten Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government. Morrison has a thin majority of 77 seats in the 151-seat House of Assembly, a possible loss of two seats would leave his grip on power threatened.

The challenge is set to return to the federal court on the 11th of October.