Kevin Rudd unveils plan to reform party leader election rule

CANBERRA, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who is also leader of the ruling Labor Party, on Monday unveiled his proposal to reform party leader election system.

Under the proposed election system, future leaders will be elected in a ballot in which party members have 50 percent of the votes and the caucus the other 50 percent.

Rudd said he had called for a special caucus meeting on July 22 to discuss the federal election and party rule changes.

"This is the most significant reform to the Australian Labor Party in recent history," he said.

Rudd said any candidate for the leadership will need the initial backing of 20 percent of caucus members.

Among the rule changes, a leader who takes the party to the election and wins "remains as leader of the party and the government for the duration of that term", he said.

Rudd himself was toppled as Labor leader in 2010 before reseizing the leadership from Julia Gillard late last month.

Under the proposed changes, 75 percent of Labor MPs would be required to sign a petition to bring on a leadership challenge to an incumbent prime minister. At the moment the backing of 30 percent of the smaller caucus group is required, with no involvement by party members.

Rudd said he believed the reform will be welcome by all party members and the change would improve the quality of government and certainty of leadership.

"I believe it will encourage people to re-engage in the political process and bring back those supporters who have been disillusioned," he said.

Analysts said Rudd's timing is unusual with an election date already scheduled on September 14.

"He clearly believes the image of the Labor Party is one of the impediments to Labor being re-elected," Australian Associated Press quoted Emeritus Professor John Warhurst from the School of Politics and International Relations at the Australian National University as saying.

He said a leader wouldn't raise reorganization and reform of their own party so close to an election unless they thought the public cared, and Rudd is portraying himself as "a reforming leader almost running against (his) own party".

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