Labor released figures over the weekend calculating the impact of the changes on each electorate, based on past PBS use, that revealed the highest additional cost for the PBS measure would fall hardest on Coalition-held rural electorates, with the Victorian seat of Gippsland topping the list, followed by Hinkler, Murray, Gilmore and Cowper.
The influence of wealth was ensured by a provision of the law (Prussian in origin) that half the council was to be elected from among the 1,200 highest taxpayers of the capital (the so-called virilists), while the other half of the council's membership was elected from the rest of the electorate, based on a rather narrow franchise.
Most pollsters are modeling their surveys to a "likely voter electorate" based on what previous mid-term elections looked like.
For that reason, it is unfortunate that one reflexive reaction among some election observers was to dismiss as a "loser" the notion of "modeling the electorate" based on voter history drawn from official lists of registered voters.
If the electorate was based on all eligible voters, Democrats would have the advantage, says Jocelyn Kiley at the Pew Research Centre, a polling group.
But the reports you are seeing on the proportion of different demographic groups in the electorate are based on the weighted assumption of 20 percent early voter turnout, according to Joe Lenski of Edison Research, which conducts the exit poll.
But as one of the leaders of a multinational mission to observe the voting, I was genuinely impressed by the election's organization and turnout, and do not doubt that Bainimarama's mandate to lead Fiji now represents a choice freely made by the electorate, based largely on popular measures such as elimination of tuition fees and bus fares for children attending school.
Accordingly, the vast majority of the electorate based their choices on sectarian and ethnic affiliations, not on genuine political platforms.
Successful candidate Chloe Smith was returned as the Conservative member with a mandate based on one in five of the electorate.
Top South Carolina Republicans see Trump as the one to beat, noting that the electorate historically votes based on values and emotion.
