Labor MP Joanne Ryan will have four challengers to her seat of Lalor at the federal election on July 2.
The Australian Electoral Commission announced the names of the candidates on Friday and conducted a random draw for positions on the ballot paper.
Ms Ryan is recontesting the seat, which she won in the 2013 election when former prime minister Julia Gillard left politics.
Ms Ryan, a Werribee local, former school teacher and principal, suffered a 10 per cent swing against her in the last election. This time, she will go up against Gayle Murphy of the Liberals, Greens Party candidate Daniel Sova, Marion Vale of the Rise Up Australia Party, and Susan Jakobi of Australia First.
Ms Vale secured pole position on the ballot paper, followed by Ms Ryan, Ms Murphy, Ms Jakobi and Mr Sova.
The order of candidates’ listing is strategically important in elections because it delivers the “donkey vote” to the candidate in the first position.
“Donkey voting” occurs when voters number candidates from top to bottom.
The electorate of Lalor, created in 1949, has been held just once by a non-Labor MP. That was 1966-69, when the representative was Liberals’ Mervyn Lee.
