The Australian government lost its one-seat majority on Friday after the country’s top court held Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce’s election invalid as he held dual citizenship at that time, BBC reported. However, Joyce may stand for a bye-election again as he gave up his New Zealand citizenship in August.
Along with Joyce, four other politicians were also ruled to have been wrongly elected to the Senate because they held dual citizenship. Two of them quit office in July, while Joyce and two others now stand disqualified.
The matter first came to light in July when a senator had stepped down after he discovered that he held dual citizenship. Following this, various senators put their citizenship proofs in public domain.
Australia’s Constitution prohibits people with dual citizenship from being elected. Over three days of hearings at the High Court of Australia, the government said that only two of the lawmakers – Malcolm Roberts and Scott Ludlam – should be disqualified, as the others did not know about their dual citizenship when they were elected in 2016.
Joyce has pledged to stand for a re-election. “I respect the verdict of the court,” he said. “We live in a marvellous democracy, with all the checks and balances they have given us all the freedoms we see. I thank the court [for] their deliberations.”
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