Candidate for Balmain: Verity Firth

It is with rather little objectivity that I celebrate the result of the Balmain by-election held today, which has been won by City of Sydney Deputy Lord Mayor Verity Firth, with 77 votes, to former-and-soon-to-be Leichhardt Mayor Alice Murphy's 55. It was anticipated that the vote would be fairly close, with both candidates campaigning on similar policies.

It's quite a refreshing feeling, voting in a rank-and-file pre-selection. It's one of the only remnants of direct democracy still extant in the political system and as such, is extremely important to preserve. We voters here in the seat of Balmain are a lot luckier than constituents of seats in which candidates have been imposed. We also saw a traditional grass-roots campaign which allowed candidates to compete on a level playing field: no big money campaigns, no gimmicks; instead, a simple battle of policy, presentation and drive.

The good thing is that rank-and-file members were trusted with the task of endorsing a candidate they believed in. The sad thing is such a thing should be considered a novelty.