Alan Howard will run as a candidate for Family First, Dan Abikhair will stand for the Save the Planet Party and Anita Donlon is listed as a Palmer United candidate on the party’s website. 

Candidate nominations closed at noon yesterday and an official list and ballot places will be revealed today.

Mr Howard said Kevin Rudd’s recent support for gay marriage had given him cause to run. 

“I’d just noticed that despite the fact the legislation has been through parliament and defeated, the Greens and to a lesser extent the Labor Party are pushing for changes to the Marriage Act,” he said. 

“I’m very much opposed to changing the Marriage Act. 

“Whilst I don’t see this as the major issue of the election, which of course is the economy, it’s an issue I want to contest strongly and loudly.”

Mr Howard ran for the party at the last federal election and as an independent in the state seat of Bendigo West in 1999. 

Mr Abikhair, a 28-year-old part-time university student, said he was running on a climate change platform. 

“I’m very concerned,” he said.  

“There’s an overwhelming amount of science that is pointing towards us entering an emergency climate change situation. 

“We have this wonderful window for the next few years to act and I want to show that there are many parts of our community that are acting upon that. 

“I want to help bring the rest of the community along with us.”

Ms Donlon did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday. 

If all candidates are confirmed there will be at least 11 people vying for the seat, which Steve Gibbons has held since 1998. 

The Australian Electoral Commission will not declare or comment on the candidates until about noon Friday. 

AEC divisional returning officer Terry Holmes said the public ballot draw would take place in Hargreaves Street, with ballot papers to be printed this weekend to allow for pre-poll voting. 

An AEC spokesman said the ballot positions were drawn in a “double randomisation process”. 

Karel Zegers, who has run in several elections at various levels of government, said he had decided not to run.