Overview

• Party officials in Victoria announced the first-ballot win after 10 days of voting, with Lowan taking 3,189 votes to Jonathan Kerr’s 1,908 and Adam Bremner-Akins’s 128.
• The race featured a surge of sign-ups, including free memberships for people aged 14 to 30, and a verification push involving an online tool and video calls for roughly 3,200 new members.
• Lowan had threatened legal action when party officials discussed extending the voting deadline until at least 80 percent of new members were verified.
• With neither of the party’s two MLAs seeking the job, the new leader does not hold a seat and will focus on rebuilding the organization outside the legislature.
• Lowan cast the outcome as a mandate for a bold progressive agenda and said younger members energized the campaign.