Wayne Swan poised to be elected ALP national president

Former treasurer Wayne Swan was last night set to become Labor’s national president, having received a strong rank-and-file vote.

Former Australian treasurer Wayne Swan is set to become Labor’s national president. Picture: AAP

Former treasurer Wayne Swan was last night set to become Labor’s national president, having received a strong vote from rank-and-file members that has sent shockwaves through the party’s left faction.

Mr Swan received 48.77 per cent of postal votes ahead of incumbent president Mark Butler, the opposition climate and energy spokesman, who received 35.91 per cent. The Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union’s Mich-Elle Myers received 10.4 per cent and Queensland senator Claire Moore 4.89 per cent.

There were 10,621 valid postal votes received. Counting of 8771 online votes was continuing last night. Senior party sources told The Australian it was unlikely Mr Butler, who has been president since mid-2015, would make up enough votes to be re-elected.

More than 53,000 rank-and-file party members were eligible to vote via online and postal ballots that took place from May 4 to June 15. About 36 per cent of party members are expected to have voted.

The national president chairs Labor’s national conference and meetings of the national executive. The national presidency has been held by Bob Hawke, Neville Wran, Barry Jones, Carmen Lawrence and John Faulkner, among others.

If Mr Swan remains ahead in the counting and wins the presidency, it is likely that Mr Butler and Ms Myers will be elected as national vice-presidents.

Mr Butler’s campaign for re-election divided the national left faction. The CFMMEU ran a spoiler candidate, Ms Myers, who took votes away from Mr Butler. Senator Moore announced her candidacy but then urged her supporters to vote for Mr Butler after it became clear Mr Swan was winning significant support.

Leadership aspirant Anthony Albanese strongly backed Mr Butler and officially launched his campaign.

But many of Mr Butler’s frontbench colleagues were angry that he decided to run for re-election as president as it could conflict with his frontbench duties. Mr Butler trashed the party as undemocratic, with a low primary vote and said it was losing members.

Labor leader Bill Shorten made it clear to colleagues that he backed Mr Swan for national president, who was also endorsed by the national right faction.

Mr Swan, a former deputy prime minister, ran a spirited and energetic campaign focused on tackling economic and social inequality, and launched attacks on multinational firms, the banking sector and the media.

Although Labor’s rank-and-file membership skews significantly to the left, Mr Swan was able to win the support of vast sections of the party.