A once and future king

Newman: a future local MP?

Here is an interesting possible twist to Queensland politics in the aftermath of what is looking like an LNP bloodbath that should see a dramatic resurgence of Labor and Premier Newman losing his seat of Ashgrove this Saturday.
Said William Bowe in Crikey: "Whichever way preferences are sliced, present indications are that the overall swing will be well beyond Newman’s 5.7% margin."
And here is where its gets interesting, could Newman have a cunning plan?

In an opinion article by Anne Twomey, Professor of Constitutional Law at University of Sydney looked at the legal framework and concluded:

"In the short term, ... it would be possible for a premier to remain in office, without holding a seat, if his or her government held the confidence of the lower house and the premier was seeking election in a by-election.
"This assumes that a compliant MP would resign to permit Newman to run for his or her seat and that Newman was prepared to do so."    

Take your pick of possible safe seats that may be targeted. The ABC's swing calculator is probably a good place to start. Local electorates Cleveland and Redlands are regarded as safe on a current margins of 7.3% and 10.3% respectively and could be targets if either of the LNP candidates, if they win, were "compliant" and resigned.

As I said: interesting.

Redlanders line up to cast early votes in Victoria Point,
They ran the traditional gauntlet of  party faithful pushing how to vote cards.