For candidates

To become a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) you need to nominate your candidacy for an election.

Eligibility

To nominate as a candidate, you need to be eligible to be an MLA.

Generally, to be eligible to become an MLA you must be:

an Australian citizen
at least 18 years of age
an ACT elector or entitled to be an ACT elector.

There are additional eligibility requirements and circumstances that make a person ineligible to be an MLA.

These are detailed in the Candidate's Information Handbook [PDF 5.8MB].

Nominations

Nominations for the 2024 ACT election are now closed.

The nomination period for the 2024 ACT election opened on 13 September 2024 and closed at 12 noon on 24 September 2024.

For ACT elections, candidates are able to be nominated in 2 ways:

non-party candidates can be nominated by 20 electors who are entitled to vote for the electorate for which the candidate is being nominated
party candidates can be nominated by the registered officer of the registered political party.

Read the Nomination of candidates - fact sheet

Read about:

Candidate information statements

Candidates contesting an ACT election may provide the Electoral Commissioner with information about the candidate, for publication on the Elections ACT website.

Read the Candidate information statement - Fact sheet

Candidate listing on ballot papers

Candidates are listed in either 'party grouped' or 'ungrouped' columns on the ballot paper.

Party candidates are grouped together in a column for their party. If only one party candidate stands in an electorate, the candidate is listed in an ungrouped column.

All non-party candidates are listed in an ungrouped column. A non-party candidate can choose to have the word 'Independent' printed under their name on the ballot paper.

Read about ballot papers .

Information for candidates for the 2024 election

The Candidate's Information Handbook summarises the electoral law relating to candidates for the 2024 ACT Legislative Assembly.

All prospective candidates should download and read the Candidate's Information Handbook [PDF 5.8MB].

Campaigning and advertising

Candidates can commence their campaign for election at any time.

You don’t need to be formally nominated or have your nomination declared by the Electoral Commissioner before campaigning.

Most campaign material must be authorised.

Read the Authorising electoral material factsheet.

Electoral advertising signs may be displayed for a period of up to six weeks immediately preceding the election date, and must be removed within 48 hours of the close of polling booths. For the 2024 election, signs may only be displayed from 7 September 2024 and must be removed by 6pm on 21 October 2024.

If you post signs on public unleased land or attach a sign to a vehicle, you must be compliant with statutory requirements.

New requirements are in place for movable signs and advertising on vehicles with higher penalties.

Candidates, parties, and other entities must not:

display more than 250 signs on public unleased land; or
place signs along roads with a usual speed limit of 90km/h or more.

Vehicles with signs attached must not park in designated places. These are:

roads where the speed limit is 60km/h, and road related areas and public unleased land directly accessible by vehicle from those roads; and
Northbourne Avenue between the intersections of Vernon Circle and Gould Street.

There is a ban in the ACT on canvassing within 100 metres of a polling place. Under the ban, it is an offence, within a polling place, or within 100 metres of the building, to:

Do anything for the purpose of influencing the vote of an elector as the elector is approaching, or while the elector is at, the polling place.
Do anything for the purpose of inducing an elector not to vote as the elector is approaching, or while the elector is at, the polling place.
Exhibit an electoral notice other than a notice authorised by the Commissioner for display there.

The ban applies to polling places on election day, early voting centres before election day and mobile polling in hospitals and institutions.

The ban means that how-to-vote cards cannot be distributed within 100 metres of a polling place.

100m boundary maps of polling locations

For more information read:

Public funding

Public funding is available to parties and non-party candidates contesting an election.

The public funding rate for the 2024 election is 1015.896 cents. A party or candidate is eligible for public funding if they receive at least 4% of the formal first preference votes cast in an electorate.

There is no obligation to accept public funding.

Read about public funding.