Eight candidates have nominated in Eden Monaro for the House of Representative in the Federal Election on 21 August.
Along with sitting member Dr Mike Kelly (ALP), David Gazzard (Liberal) and Catherine Moore (Greens), are accountant Olga Quilty (Liberal Democrats), traffic controller Frank Fragiacomo (Independent), self employed Ray Buckley (Independent), information technologist Tom Gradwell (Family First), and domestic engineer Ursula Bennett (Christian Democrat).
The order of the Ballot was drawn last week with Olga Quilty taking top spot, followed by Kelly, Gazard, Fragiacomo, Buckley, Gradwell, Bennett and Moore in last position.
Campaigning continued at a pace across the electorate and the country, as polls showed support for the Coalition strengthening.
Meanwhile the Green in Eden-Monaro announced their preference decisions.
"While it is no secret that, following negotiations between The Greens and the ALP, Greens will allocate preferences to the ALP ahead of the Coalition in a number of key marginal seats, Greens in Eden-Monaro could not finalise our decision until we knew the final list of candidates," said Catherine Moore, Greens candidate for Eden-Monaro.
"Now that we know that there are eight candidates and that Ray Buckley, an Independent and active participant in the Transition Towns movement has fulfilled the AEC requirements and has been able to nominate, we will be putting him in no. 2 position on our How To Vote. Ray shares many common values with the Greens as we attempt to transform our communities and economy along sustainable principles.
"He will be followed by Frank Fragiacomo (Independent), Mike Kelly (ALP), David Gazard (LP), and then the remaining three candidates from the LDP, CDP and FF" said Catherine.
"The four groups agreed that Eden-Monaro could be part of national negotiations to ensure Labor did not preference conservative minor parties in the Senate, as they did in 2004 to elect Family First's Steven Fielding. We are happy to report that these negotiations were successful" she said.
"Contrary to some suggestions about the preference negotiations between The Greens and the ALP, I can quite categorically say that the arrangement involves only a swap of Greens' Lower House preferences in a number of seats in return for ALP Senate preferences going to The Greens in all states and territories," said Catherine. "It's as simple as that."
"The negotiations reflected Greens principles and did not involve any request or any concession on policy issues from the Labor Government."
A total of 1198 candidates have nominated to run in the 2010 federal election nationally, including 349 Senate candidates for the 40 Senate vacancies and 849 candidates for the 150 House of Representatives seats across Australia.
The 2010 nominations are made up of 353 female candidates and 845 male candidates.
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