CANBERRA: The Austra­lian government on Saturday won a crucial by-election that restores its tenuous grip on power that was threatened by a constitutional ban on dual citizens sitting in Parliament.

The conservative Liberal Party candidate John Alexander regained his Sydney electorate, defeating Kristina Keneally, the Las Vegas-born candidate for the centre-left Labour Party who was once leader of the New South Wales state government.

Alexander had been forced to quit over a constitutional ban of dual citizens sitting in Parliament. The former champion tennis player was able to re-contest the electorate he had held since 2010 because he renounced the citizenship he inherited from his British-born father.

The by-election returns Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s government to the single-seat majority it held in October when the High Court created a constitutional crisis by ruling that five lawmakers were ineligible to sit in Parliament.

They included Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, who was able to successfully contest a by-election on Dec 2 because he had renounced the New Zealand citizenship he inherited from his father.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2017