Another micro party that sprung up to contest the 2016 ACT Election has been deregistered amidst claims the system is "stacked" in favour of the major parties.
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Vote Canberra was set up last year as a vehicle to get independent candidates a seat in the ACT Legislative Assembly.
But one of its founders, Bruce Paine, said while they did not stand any candidates last election, the ACT electoral system was "more stacked against" minor parties than the federal system, making it harder to get different voices in the Assembly.
"There's no doubt the system is stacked against us and it's very interesting that the ACT is the only state or territory parliament that does not have an independent member in Australia. It's quite unusual, our situation," he said,
Last October's election was expected to be the most tightly contested in years, with minor parties emboldened by a record number of votes at the federal election in July.
Independents who aligned themselves with Vote Canberra would have had the advantage of the party's own column on the ballot papers amongst the record 141 candidates.
But those votes failed to materialise at the ACT Election, with ACT Labor claiming a record fifth term in government with the support of the Greens.
Mr Paine said they cancelled Vote Canberra's registration because of the cost of running the party in between elections.
The co-founder of another micro party recently deregistered - Tim Bohm of Like Canberra - said the ACT's electoral system would need to be changed if independents and minor parties were to have a chance of gaining an Assembly seat.
But Mr Paine said Canberrans had the power to shake-up system already - all they had to do was go down the line and vote in "as many independents as you can find".
"I don't think we're going to be able to change the system, essentially because Labor and Liberals like this system and the Greens have got two members," Mr Paine said.
"The take-out is the voters in Canberra need to have a good hard think about whether they want to elect minor parties and independents and if they want to, it's completely in their power to do so.
"At the end of the day the voters do have the power in Canberra - they just need to know how to use it."
