SYDNEY May 27 Kyodo Pauline Hanso...

SYDNEY May 27 Kyodo

Pauline Hanson, the former leader of single in kind Nation, and her party co-founder David Ettridge, said Monday they will stand trial in succession charges of electoral fraud.

The red-haired Hanson skyrocket to prominence in 1996 when she won a lower house seat in the federal parliament. She declared Australia was in danger of being ''swamped by the agency of Asians'' and called for welfare benefits to Aborigines to be abolished.

Hanson and Ettridge, who faced a monthlong committal hearing in the Brisbane Magistrates Court, were charged with dishonestly inducing the Queensland electoral commissioner to register the party.

Hanson is also charged with pair counts of dishonestly obtaining almost A$500,000 (about $250000) in electoral funding.

the two Hanson and Ettridge pleaded not guilty to the charges and have maintained their innocence over the hearing.

Speaking after the sentence outside the court, Hanson said she would fight the charges against her.

No date has even now been set for the district court trial.

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