- Monique Ryan set to retain her seat
- Teal MP set to narrowly beat Liberal candidate
Monique Ryan is set to retain her seat at Kooyong after almost losing it to the Liberals.
Sky News and Daily Mail Australia’s political editor Peter van Onselen called the inner-east Melbourne seat for the Teal MP on Sunday.
Dr Ryan has 50.3 per cent of the vote, pulling ahead of Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer by just 693 votes.
Only 5,000 votes are left to count and they are projected to be split 50/50, essentially guaranteeing Dr Ryan the win.
Van Onselen has also called the seat of Bean, in the ACT, for Labor incumbent David Smith.
Mr Smith edged slightly ahead of Independent MP Jessie Price by 183 votes on Saturday in a stunning turnaround after Ms Price led the count for most of the week.
Liberal MP Matt Moran has also conceded defeat in Bullwinkel, on Perth’s eastern fringe, to Labor’s Trish Cook.
Van Onselen said on Friday Dr Ryan looked set to retain her seat after an Australian Electoral Commission blunder logging votes completely shifted the expected outcome.
Monique Ryan (pictured with her family) is set to retain her seat at Kooyong after almost losing it to the Liberals
Before the AEC mistake, the Liberals were on track to mount a stunning comeback and knock the accident prone Teal out of federal politics.
Dr Ryan prematurely declared victory on election night last Saturday.
She was forced to release a statement a couple of days later on Monday saying the race was still on.
‘The election result in Kooyong is too close to call at this point,’ she said.
‘It will take some days – possibly some weeks – for the outcome to be confirmed.
‘Thank you Kooyong, for your support. Thanks to my team, and my family. Thanks to all of the Kooyong volunteers for your extraordinary hard work.
‘And thanks to the AEC workers who are still dealing with a whole lot of ballots.’
The road to re-election has been chaotic over the five-week campaign with Dr Ryan facing a series of controversies.
Dr Ryan has 50.3 per cent of the vote, pulling ahead of Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer (centre) by just 693 votes
A week before election day, on April 27, Dr Ryan came under fire after footage emerged of two campaign volunteers claiming they were told by China-linked community group the Hubei Association to support her.
The group has previously been accused of working with the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Department, a foreign influence operations agency.
As a result, the Australian Electoral Commission referred the video to the Electoral Integrity Assurance Taskforce, a move which was welcomed by the Teal MP.
The drama surrounding her campaign kicked off in March when her husband, Peter Jordan, was filmed removing a sign backing Ms Hamer.
‘I unreservedly apologise for removing the sign. It was a mistake,’ Mr Jordan later told Daily Mail Australia.
‘I believed the sign was illegally placed, but I should have reported my concerns to council.’
Dr Ryan also issued her own apology, saying it should not have happened.
more to come
