Electoral administration in Australia is usually spared the partisan rancour that blights its every aspect in the United States, but Labor was happy to make an exception yesterday after being presented with a nine-week campaign for the “Super Saturday” byelections in Braddon, Longman, Perth, Fremantle and Mayo.

Down four votes on the floor of the House of Representatives, Labor had already been kicking up a fuss over the government’s reluctance to have the whole thing wrapped up by mid-June — a little audaciously, given the circumstances that have brought the byelections about.

Labor clearly gained traction with its argument that voters should not be denied representation any longer than necessary, as Speaker Tony Smith’s announcement on Monday that the Australian Electoral Commission had advised against a date of June 23 caused most to conclude that an announcement must shortly follow for June 30 or July 7.

While not soon enough to satisfy Labor, either date would have been well in line with the long-term historical norm — although not with the byelections in the Coalition seats of New England and Bennelong last December, both of which were done and dusted in around five weeks.

To the extent that July 28 entered the discussion, it was through suggestions that Labor’s national conference that weekend might prove awkward for Bill Shorten if it came on the heels of poor byelection results a few weeks before.

As such, few were prepared for Smith’s announcement yesterday that the byelections would be held on that very day, in accordance with further advice received from the electoral commissioner Tom Rogers.

Rogers’ latest advice to Smith advanced two points, the first of which elaborated on what was stated on Monday: that it would be necessary to bed down new regulations and procedures to protect the candidate nominations process from further section 44 mishaps, which had recently been the subject of a bipartisan recommendation of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters.

It now emerged this would take two weeks, and that the 33-day minimum timetable for a byelection campaign could not begin until it was complete.

That seemed to suggest July 14 would still have been tenable at a minimum – were it not for the second, hitherto unidentified obstacle of school holidays, which would affect one state or another both that week and the next.

On this count at least, Labor can be forgiven for sounding unconvinced, as the byelection that confirmed the Liberals’ hold on Bennelong had been conducted just nine days before Christmas.

Shortly after Smith’s announcement, Rogers was put through the wringer in Senate estimates by Penny Wong, who charged that his advice had, at a bare minimum, the appearance of partisanship.

It remains to be seen if the looming marathon campaign confers as much advantage on the Coalition as Labor’s umbrage might seem to suggest.

One consequence for the Liberals, for better or worse, is that it allows plenty of time to revisit their contentious decision not to field a candidate in Perth.

This was reached a fortnight ago by the party’s state executive, an outcome that was seen to reflect Senator Mathias Cormann’s influence on the internal affairs of the state branch.

It now faces a challenge at tomorrow’s meeting of the larger state council from its principal opponent, Senator Dean Smith.

The publicly stated justifications for the forfeit were expense and electoral futility, although another factor may have been a desire to keep the issue of GST revenue off the agenda at a time when the party was hoping to poach a seat off Labor in Tasmania, where the issue plays out very differently.

However, the decision has infuriated the party’s rank-and-file, and informed observers say the vote on Smith’s motion could go either way.