[Sunday 16 February] While the official result will not be declared until Tuesday 17 February, counting indicates that the Liberal’s Rachel Westaway will be the new state MP for Prahran.
The latest counting put Westaway a thousand votes ahead of Greens Di Camillo.
2 candidate preferred provisional result
Westaway ( Liberal) 16352 votes = 51.56%
Di Camillo (Greens) 15363 votes = 48.44%
As anticipated, the result was decided by preferences, with the Liberals and Greens each securing just over one-third of the primary votes. The unofficial Labor candidate, Tony Lupton, only secured 12% of first preferences. The only other independent to get over 1,000 votes was school principal Nathan Chisholm, with just over 5%.
See VEC results page | See ABC election analysis page
Low turnout typical of by-elections
Only 64% of voters actually cast a ballot despite compulsory voting. In Werribee, the turnout was 75%.
The Prahran label has definitely made communication with voters in St Kilda, St Kilda Road, and Queens Road tricky. Who would suspect that the St Kilda Town Hall is located in the Prahran electorate? The lack of government involvement in the race also meant there was none of the usual ministerial pork barrelling and events. The much-desired St Kilda Primary School Hub – also in Prahran – barely rated a mention. But now it’s in a marginal seat – yippee!
Big win for Australia Post, Google and socials
TWiSK has a letterbox in the electorate and witnessed the beleaguered postie delivering unaddressed leaflets by the wagonload. Many addressed items were also received using the VEC roll. This is not cheap.
Clearly, social media giants also had a field day. In the last week, TWiSK was bombarded with Liberal and Green adverts on YouTube and other social media platforms. Both parties threw everything at Prahran.
The emergence of the How NOT to vote card
Most voters are familiar with How to Vote cards – these are a longstanding feature of our process. Locally, we have seen the emergence of ‘ginger groups’ who recommend against voting for certain candidates.
This occurred in the recent council elections when Progressive Port Phillip issued election material with thumbs up and thumbs down recommendations while not fielding any candidates themselves.
In Prahran, Advance Australia not only issued a pamphlet but also had teams at polling booths engaging with voters. They did not field candidates and are not required to declare expenditure.
At least two independent candidates have vowed to make official complaints to the VEC about the behaviour of Advance Australia at the booths.
In Prahran, the Green primary vote was ultimately similar to previous polls, but preferences did let them down.
Swarming coloured t-shirts
Another feature, although not a new one, is swarming teams of volunteers at polling booths clad in color-coded t-shirts. Remember the Labor red shirts scandal? Labor and Greens have long had teams at booths, but it seems now that the blue crew has joined the race in force.
TWiSK witnessed swarming How to Vote volunteers occupying the footpath on both sides of the Windsor pre-poll, at times up to 100 metres away from the entrance.
TWiSK suggests that the Liberals have stepped up their field game and now have the resources to deploy more campaign workers than before. Maybe this is a feature of by-elections, but it’s certainly a sign of willing intent.
Democracy. Got to love it.
