Sigh of Relief: Greens back down in the last minute on split ticket proposal

The Greens, power brokers, under pressure have backed down on issuing a split ticket in Victoria's Southern Metropolitan upper-house region.

Greens numbers man, Stephen Luntz, was in the VEC Melbourne office 10 minutes to 12 registering the Greens group voting tickets.  Registration of Group voting tickets closed at 12 noon today.

There was considerable concern that the Greens would trade off upper-house seats for Liberal preference in inner city lower-house seats.

The Greens were under pressure to not issue a split ticket as it would have attracted wide publicity and cost the Greens support across the State.

ABC Electoral Analyst, Antony Green, in commenting on the proposal of a split ticket said that "If the Greens issued a Split Ticket it would be the highlight of the campaign".

Public discussion and community concern played a major role in the decision of the Greens to not issue a split ticket. Had the Greens issued a split ticket the Liberal Party would have won three seats in Southern Metropolitan.

Luntz in exiting the VEC was reported as saying that they had preferenced Independents, the Sex Party then the ALP.

Update: Sex Party, DLP and others have preferenced the Liberal Party before the ALP and as such will deliver the Liberal Party a thrid seat in Southern Metropolitian. (ALP: 1, LNP: 3, GRN: 1)