Paul Murray: Political party agendas remain obscured despite WA voters taking advantage of preferential voting

Last weekend’s local government elections confirmed that WA voters have embraced the optional preferential voting system which was introduced at the 2023 polls.

It replaced a first-past-the-post system in which winners relied only on the votes they could garner directly. The most popular candidate won.

Optional preferential was always going to make local government even more party political. But it has some benefits.

A quick analysis of last weekend’s returns suggests most voters know they don’t have to mark all the boxes — as they are forced to do in the elections that determine who forms government at the State and Federal level — and can avoid giving a preference tick to candidates they don’t like. That’s important.

Full preferential is unnecessarily draconian and leads to far too m