The October 19 ACT Legislative Assembly election will have 149 candidates vying for 25 MLA positions, with five seats available in each of the five electorates. 

This is 12 more than 2020’s 137 candidates and eight more than 2016’s 141 hopefuls. This is also double the numbers from the two lowest number of candidates contesting in both 1995 and 2012 (74 each). However, there were three electorates with 17 members up until the 2016 election.

The central electorate of Kurrajong has the highest number of candidates with 34 and the southern electorate of Brindabella the least, with 24.

ACT Electoral Commissioner, Damian Cantwell said postal voting would begin on on Monday, September 30 and early voting on Tuesday, October 8, with 11 early voting centres available across Canberra for the election.

“All Canberrans are eligible to vote early from October 8, and we’re committed to helping all eligible ACT electors participate in the electoral  process.’ Mr Cantwell said.

Under the ACT’s Robson Rotation method, the order of the printing of candidates’ names within each  column will vary on each consecutive ballot paper. Ballot papers for each of the five-member electorates are printed in 60 different ways.  

The Brindabella electorate has 24 candidates:

• Canberra Liberals: James Daniels, ROsa Harber, Sandi Mitra, Deborah Morris and Mark Parton. 
• ACT Greens: Sam Nugent, Laura Nuttall, and Troy Swan
• First Nation Party: Wendy Brookman, Jack McDougall, and Dylan Robb
• Family First: Bruce Gartshore, Merle Graham
• Animal Justice Party: Gareth Ballard and Robyn Soxsmith
• ACT Labor: Louise Crossman, Brendan Forde, Mick Gentleman, Caitlin Tough, and Taimus Werner-Gibbings
• Independents for Canberra: Riley Fernandes, Vanessa Picker, and Elise Searson
• Ungrouped: Emmanuel Ezekiel-Hart (Independent)

The Ginninderra electorate has 33 candidates:

• The ACT Greens: Jo Clay, Dani Hunter, Tim Liersch, and Adele Sinclair
• Family First: Sunil Baby, Elizabeth Kikkert, and Andrew Wallace
• Belco Party: Angela Lount, Bill Stefaniak, and Alan Tutt
• Animal Justice Party: Carolyne Drew, Lara Drew
• ACT Labor: Tim Bavinton, Yvette Berry, Tara Cheyne, Heidi Prowse, and Sean Sadimoen
• Independents for Canberra: Leanne Foresti, Suzanne Nucifora, and Mark Richardson
• Labour DLP: Douglas Cooper, Helen Crowe, Rick Howard, Maxwell Spencer and John Vanderburgh
• Canberra Liberals: Chiaka Barry, Peter Cain, Joe Prevedello, and Darren Roberts
• Libertarian Party: Guy Jakeman and Arved Von Brasch
• Ungrouped: Mignonne Cullen (Independent) and Janine Haskins (Independent)

The Kurrajong electorate has 34 candidates: 

• ACT Labor: Andrew Barr, Aggi Court, Martin Greenwood, Rachel Stephen-Smith, and Marina Talevski
• Independents for Canberra: Thomas Emerson, Ben Johnston, Tenzin Mayne, Sara Poguet, and Sue Read
• Family First: Andrew Charles Adair and Jenny Hentzschel
• The ACT Greens: James Cruz, Isabel Mudford, Shane Rattenbury, Jillian Reid, and Rebecca Vassarotti
• Canberra Liberals: Ramon Bouckaert, Efthimios Calatzis, Elizabeth Lee, Sarah Luscombe, and Patrick Pentony
• Animal Justice Party: Walter Kudrycz and Teresa McTaggart
• Labor DLP: Belinda Haley and Boston White
• First Nation Party: Rhiannon Connors, Thaddeus Connnors, Paul Girrawah House, Harrison Pike, and Jessika Spencer
• Strong Independents: Ann Bray and Peter Strong
• Ungrouped: Marilena Damiano (Independent)

The Murrumbidgee electorate has 27 candidates: 

• ACT Labor: Noor El-Asadi, Marisa Paterson, Chris Steel, Nelson Tang, and Anna Whitty
• Independents for Canberra: Kathleen Bolt, Anne-Louise Dawes, Robert Knight, Paula McGrady, and Nathan Naicker
• Family First: Andrew Copp and Andy Verri
• Fiona Carrick Independent: Fiona Carrick, Marea Fatseas and Bruce Paine
• Canberra Liberals: Ed Cocks, Jeremy Hanson, Elyse Heslehurst, Amardeep Singh, and Karen Walsh
• Animal Justice Party: Gwenda Griffiths and Ashleigh Griffiths-Smith
• The ACT Greens: Michael Brewer, Sam Carter, Emma Davidson, and Harini Rangarajan
• Ungrouped: Rima Diab (Independent)

The Yerrabi electorate has 31 candidates:

• The ACT Greens: Andrew Braddock, Soëlily Consen-Lynch, and Alex Gias, 
• Belco Party: Gregory Burke and Jason Taylor
• Labour DLP: Michael Hanna and Colin Jory
• Canberra Liberals: Leanne Castley, Ralitsa Dimitrova, John Mikita, James Milligan, and Krishna Nadimpalli
• Family First: Greg Amos and Henry Kivimaki
• First Nation Party: Lisa Barnes, Michael Duncan, Kye Moggridge, Cooper Pike, and Tyson Powell
• ACT Labor: Suzanne Orr, Michael Pettersson, Mallika Raj, Ravinder Sahni, and Pradeep Sornaraj
• Independents for Canberra: Sneha Kc, Vikram Kulkarni, David Pollard, and Trent Pollard
• Ungrouped: Joanne McKinley (Animal Justice Party), Mohammad Munir Hussainn and Fuxin Li (Independent)

Postal voting will start on September 30, as well as the commencement of attendance early voting on October 8, with 11 early voting centres to be available.

Opening times for early voting places 

• October 8-October 11: 10.30am-6.30pm 
• October 12: 9am-5pm 
• October 14-October 17: 10.30am-6.30pm 
• October 18: 9am-8pm 
• October 19: 8am-6pm 

Early voting centres are listed here.

Candidates for all electorates are listed here

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