Liberals retain the pole position
Newcastle Herald
Thursday March 31, 2011
THE final results in Newcastle and Swansea should be known tomorrow or Saturday, with the Liberal likely winners, Tim Owen and Garry Edwards, to be declared on Monday.NSW Electoral Commission spokesman Richard Carroll said yesterday that thousands of absentee votes in each electorate were yet to be counted, with a full count of preferences to start tomorrow.Mr Carroll said candidates and parties had the right to ask for a recount, but he expected the results of Newcastle, Swansea and a handful of tight seats elsewhere in the state to be announced on Monday or Tuesday at the latest.Formal results in the upper house, where Pauline Hanson and the Greens are fighting out the final place, would not be known until April 12, when computerised counting would take place.Jodi McKay's campaign manager, Simon Adam, said that as many as 5000 votes were yet to be counted in Newcastle, meaning the result was far from certain."That's why we're not conceding, because with that many votes still out there, anything could happen," Mr Adam said.The latest electoral commission figures show 39,900 counted votes in Newcastle from an electorate of 48,787 voters.Records show 91.9 per cent of Newcastle voters went to the booths in 2007, with 90.6 per cent in 2003 and 92.9 per cent in 1999.A turnout of 91 per cent this year would mean about 44,400 votes, or about 4500 more than have been counted so far.On the notional count so far, Ms McKay is about 1600 votes behind.With no change to the results yesterday, Mr Owen still leads Ms McKay by 52.4 per cent to 47.6 per cent.In Swansea, where voter turnout at the past three elections has averaged about 94 per cent, the electoral commission has counted 42,600 votes in an electorate of 50,148 voters.On these figures, as many as 4500 absentee votes may remain to be counted, with Labor incumbent Robert Coombs about 800 votes behind.The two-candidate vote remains 51.2 per cent to Mr Edwards and 48.8 per cent to Mr Coombs.
© 2011 Newcastle Herald
