The Victorian Labor Party appears close to victory in the Werribee byelection despite a savage swing against the Allan government, with further counting on Thursday reportedly increasing the lead of local school teacher John Lister.
According to Labor scrutineers, a further 2230 postal votes were returned and counted by the Victorian Electoral Commission on Thursday.
Labor Party candidate for Werribee John Lister and Premier Jacinta Allan at the Labor Party gathering in Werribee on Saturday evening.Credit: Luis Enrique Aacui
After the preferences were distributed, 1191 were added to Lister’s column and 1039 added to the election night tally of Liberal candidate Steve Murphy.
This gives Lister a lead of 593 votes, with 1594 issued postal votes still unreturned, as of 2pm.
The VEC and Liberal Party scrutineers did not confirm the latest counting numbers, but Labor is increasingly confident of holding the seat, which was vacated by the retirement of long-serving Treasurer Tim Pallas.
The Liberal Party is yet to concede. It has not held the seat of Werribee since 1979.
The Victorian Electoral Commission had originally planned to count all returned postal votes on Friday but brought forward counting by a day.
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