Candidate eligibility to be made public

The Australian Electoral Commission will publish declarations showing how federal election candidates meet eligibility criteria before voting starts.

Early voters will get a chance to check whether their local candidates are eligible for parliament.

For the first time in a federal election, candidates must lodge with the Australian Electoral Commission a "qualification checklist" which will be published online.

The checklist covers issues which could disqualify them under section 44 of the constitution such as citizenship, bankruptcy and pecuniary interests.

It was developed following the MP citizenship scandal of the past term.

Evidence of foreign citizenship renunciation or Australian citizenship must be provided as part of the documentation when a candidate nominates, before April 23.

An AEC spokesman said all of the candidate information would be published before early voting starts on April 29.