Deliberately misleading party name approved for Victorian election

Deliberately misleading 'Free Palestine' party name approved for Victorian election Sat 8 Aug 2026 at 7:27am In short: A Palestinian activist has been denied a political party registration for the Victorian election because its name resembled the name of an existing registration. Avi Yemini has previously said by registering "Free Palestine" he wanted to redirect left-wing votes towards parties on the right. The Victorian Electoral Commissioner says it is legally bound to reject an application to register a party with a similar name. The Victorian Electoral Commissioner has urged voters to do their research before casting their ballot, after a party with a deliberately misleading name was successfully registered ahead of the November election. This week a group wanting to register a political party called the "Free Palestine Party" was knocked back because a pro-Israel activist had already registered a party called "Free Palestine". Electoral Commissioner Sven Bluemmel said the risk of voters being duped by the registered party's name was not a matter for the VEC under state laws. "The law requires us to register a party once they meet all the criteria under the law and that was the case here," he said. "The criteria do not go to what the policy position of the party is, that's not for me to decide." He said he could only decide whether a party name was considered offensive, too long or resembled the name of an existing registered political party, which was the case for "Free Palestine Party". Student Palestinian activist Ibrahim Hadi, who was the applicant behind the rejected party, said he understood the VEC's decision but it was frustrating. "[The Free Palestine party's] trying to paint themselves as Palestinian and use the Palestinian identity to poke fun at people that are standing up for the oppressed," he said. Mr Bluemmel said it was important voters used the information available to them to educate themselves before voting. "As a voter, do that research, find out what the party stands for, find out what the candidate stands for and always come to the VEC's website to see who's registered, who's behind it. That's all publicly available," he said. Group voting system before parliament "Free Palestine" was registered by Melbourne-based YouTuber, Avi Yemini, who has previously served in Israel's military and has heavily criticised pro-Palestine rallies. Earlier this year Mr Yemini posted a social media video calling for 750 Victorians to become members so he could register the party with the electoral commission. One of the requirements to register a new party is to have at least 500 members who are enrolled to vote in Victoria and are not members of another registered political party. Mr Yemini has previously said by registering "Free Palestine" he wanted to redirect left-wing votes towards parties on the right. It is made possible because Victoria currently has a group voting system — although it is unlikely to still be in place by November's election. The group voting system sees most voters select a single party "above the line" and in doing so, whether the voter realises it or not, they hand over all their decisions about preference allocations to that party. Victoria is the only jurisdiction that still has this system, but a law is currently before the parliament to abolish the controversial feature. Whilst he would not be drawn on the merits of the group voting system, Mr Bluemmel said abolishing it would bring Victoria in line with other jurisdictions. "For me, the main consideration is if we're going to get change the sooner it happens the better because we need to prepare," he said. Mr Bluemmel said based on data the VEC collects, "Australia has a very strong, trusted electoral system". "Victoria is no exception to that, but we can't take that for granted. We mustn't take that for granted," he said.