Voter beware: how electoral commissions are powerless to stop deliberately misleading party names
The deliberately misleading “Free Palestine” party was established by a pro-Israeli YouTuber to swing votes from left to right. And it’s perfectly legal.
An Israeli-Australian and pro-Israeli YouTuber, Avraham "Avi" Yemini, founded a party called "Free Palestine" for the upcoming Victorian state election in November. Yemini, who aims to keep Palestine under Israeli control, hopes to deceive left-wing voters with the catchy slogan. However, the Victorian Electoral Commission stopped him from registering the party as the name is essentially the same as another existing party.
While party registration aims to help voters, it doesn't regulate names closely resembling existing parties or use "truth in politics" rules to prevent deliberately misleading names. This leaves electoral commissions powerless against such trolling, leaving voters to "beware" and exercise caution when choosing their representatives.
Written by urgent.news from The Conversation AU's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
