Legalise Cannabis looks set to win a seat in the upper house in New South Wales with former Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham re-elected to parliament after a gap of four years.
With 33.2% of the vote counted, the party has 72,476 votes (4%) and a quota of 0.87. It is polling fifth behind Labor, the Coalition, the Greens and One Nation.
In the upper house, 21 of the 42 seats were up for grabs in this election, with a quota set at 1/22nd, or 4.5%, of the vote.
Based on the current count, Labor would win eight of those, the Coalition six, the Greens two, with One Nation, Legalise Cannabis, the Liberal Democrats and the Shooters winning one each. The final seat would go to either Animal Justice or the Coalition.
If the Legalise Cannabis vote holds up or improves after below-the-line votes are counted over the coming weeks, the party’s lead candidate Jeremy Buckingham would be elected. He was previously an MP from 2011 to 2019.
Meanwhile, the party contested 23 lower house seats, performing best in Cessnock, where it sits on 12.6% of first preferences with half the vote counted, Oxley (9.8% with 47% counted) and Myall Lakes (9.4% with 60% counted).
