Elections are about choosing from a variety of candidates to best represent the electorate - but Bass, Lyons and Braddon voters have more Liberal candidates than seats.
Alongside their three sitting members in those electorates, the party announced on Sunday an additional three candidates per seat.
Incumbent member for Bass Michael Ferguson said it wasn't about indecision in the party, but that it was a "reflection on the number of people that want to run Liberal."
"Obviously, there are five seats up for grabs, and in a Hare-Clark sense no party ever expects to win five out of five, but we'll be putting forward our team and we'll allow the voters to decide which of our Liberal candidates, in order of their preference, that they wish to elect," he said.
"With a slightly bigger team it means more boots on the ground campaigning for the Liberal plan."
"The race is on."
Political analyst Professor Richard Herr explained that there were two common reasons for a party to put forward more candidates than seats.
"It gives that chance for the public to sort out factional issues, and to that extent it serves some useful purpose internally for a party," he said.
State election coverage:
"It's supposed to be a way of having someone who isn't going to get elected bring in votes for the party, the assumption being that once they're on the party ticket the votes will stay there.
"The record on this is not so clear, sometimes if you put a name in their vote doesn't stay in the party if the only reason people voted for them is the name and they drift back to other names that they recognise."
Professor Herr said the real negative was that if there are only a few candidates left for preferences to be distributed, having the vote divided could all but guarantee that another party without a split vote would get the final seat.
"So it has negatives, which put at risk the vote being split at the very end of the count where you need it united," he said.
"But on the other hand if it brings in extra votes, that might just get your last candidate over the line.
"We know that normally two out of the five are there not quite as cannon fodder but aren't going to get elected, so adding a sixth one...I suspect that they're hoping that they'll bring in extra votes."
When asked, Labor leader Rebecca White said that while in the past the party had run more candidates, they made a decision after the last election to only endorse a ticket of five.
"To make sure that we gave the Labor party the best chance to win seats in each of those electorates and to win government," she said of the decision.
"This was a long standing decision of the party and it's one that I stand by, because it does give us the best chance to win seats in each of the electorates and form a majority Labor government.
"I understand that there were more nominations than positions, and that's an endorsement of how excited people are to run for the Labor party."
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Ebony Abblitt
Ebony Abblitt is a features writer at the Examiner in Launceston, with an interest in pets, politics and people. | ebony.abblitt@examiner.com.au
Ebony Abblitt is a features writer at the Examiner in Launceston, with an interest in pets, politics and people. | ebony.abblitt@examiner.com.au
