By-election triggered by resignation of former SA Liberal Leader David Speirs takes place

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Voters in Adelaide’s southern suburbs are going to the polls in a by-election sparked by the resignation and criminal prosecution of former opposition Leader David Speirs.

Transcript

00:00A lot of people are coming through early to beat that heat that we've heard about.

00:06More than 26,000 eligible voters coming through to enjoy a democracy sausage, have their voices

00:12heard and also beat that heat as we've heard.

00:16But it's not the only thing that's heating up as this has been a very interesting lead

00:22up to a campaign for the state seat of black.

00:27It was triggered by the resignation of former seat holder and former opposition leader David

00:34Spears when he resigned from state parliament in October following his arrest on a drug

00:40charge and he made his first magistrates court appearance yesterday.

00:44Hoping to take his place are Liberals Amanda Wilson, Labor's Alex Dighton, Sarah Luscombe

00:50from the Greens and Jonathan Parkin for the Australian Family Party.

00:55It did get a little bit spicy yesterday as both the major parties took aim at each other's

01:00campaigns.

01:01The state's electoral commission upheld a Labor complaint about Liberal electoral ads.

01:06They claimed that under Labor state government fees and charges had gone up 30% which was

01:12found to breach the electoral act and that material was ordered to be withdrawn.

01:17The Liberals have also taken exception to Labor campaigning with Ms Wilson saying that

01:23she felt intimidated by Mr Dighton during a verbal altercation while they were at an

01:29early voting centre.

01:30Now they've both agreed to stand a metre apart although Mr Dighton denies any wrongdoing.

01:37It's a very interesting by-election especially in South Australia as more than a quarter

01:42of enrolled voters have cast early ballots and those won't be counted until Monday.

01:48This reignited debate in the state about whether our laws need to be changed.

01:53It also means that if this is a close race we won't know the result this evening.

02:00And it also means that I guess it's an interesting test, many are seeing this as a very interesting

02:06test of Vincent Tarsier and how he's leading the state's Liberal party.

02:11So it will be very interesting to see how this one turns out, that's for sure.

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