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VICTORIANS might not know for days who will next rule the state, poll officials warn, amid predictions of a close result in tomorrow's state election.
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Date Posted: 26/11/10 10:23:34
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Polls give Baillieu the edge Wet weather is expected to lead to an increase in the number of people who fail to vote, which could affect the result.
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Victorian election looming as a cliffhanger, with result to perhaps take days to confirm UPDATED James Massola From: The Australian November 26, 2010 3:36PM 10 commentsIncrease Text SizeDecrease Text SizePrintEmail Share
Add to DiggAdd to del.icio.usAdd to FacebookAdd to KwoffAdd to MyspaceAdd to NewsvineWhat are these?VICTORIANS might not know for days who will next rule the state, poll officials warn, amid predictions of a close result in tomorrow's state election.
A Herald Sun Galaxy poll released today shows Labor and the Coalition tied 50-50 on the two-party preferred vote.
Another poll out today is the first to tip a Coalition victory, with a Roy Morgan survey of 990 voters putting the Liberal and National two-party preferred vote at 51 per cent to Labor's 49 per cent, after a surge this week.
Premier John Brumby said today he hoped for a result tomorrow night but added: “I think it'll be close.”
Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu ruled out making any last minute deals with the Greens or independents as he warned: “The message we're getting is it's going to be a close contest.”
Today's Galaxy poll shows Labor trailing the Coalition 36-44 on primary votes, putting the Coalition on track to claim 10 seats.
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But a surging Greens primary vote, which has reached 14 per cent, suggests Labor should hang on in what could be a cliffhanger election.
The Coalition needs to win 13 seats to claim government.
One in five Victorians have already made up their mind and voted for Mr Brumby, Mr Baillieu or one of the minor parties.
A surge in the number of pre-poll and postal votes means that nearly 700,000 voters will have voted by the end of today.
The Victorian Electoral Commission says 436,000 people have voted early so far, with that figure expected to reach 500,000, while another 300,000 postal vote applications have been sent out and 200,000 have already been returned.
Postal votes counting begins when booths close at 6pm tomorrow.
There are 3.58 million people enrolled to vote in Victoria.
But pre-poll vote counting will not start until Monday morning, potentially delaying the result for days if the election is close.
Commission communications manager Sue Lang said the poll authority would do its best to process pre-poll votes as quickly as possible from Monday.
“If it's a close election and all the polls are showing that it may be then we will be doing our best to return a result as quickly as possible,” she said.
“Unless there is a clear result early on in the night then it could be days before we have a clear picture of who is forming government.”
Ms Lang warned that legislation pushed through the Victorian parliament in August to allow voters who are not enrolled to turn up on polling day and register a provisional vote could slow the process further.
As the major parties made a last-minute push for votes today, Mr Brumby admitted Labor had made mistakes in the last 11 years, but said his government had “won the policy debate” during the election campaign.
Asked if his government was seen as tired, Mr Brumby told ABC radio: “We've tried to counter that through the campaign with a whole range of fresh new policies.”
He highlighted education and transport as areas where his government had “been on the front foot” during the campaign, insisting that Victoria would continue to head in the right direction if he was re-elected.
But in a significant concession a day before voters go to the polls, Mr Brumby said: “I know that we haven't got everything right, but we are headed in the right direction and I know that we will do better if we are re-elected.”
Mr Brumby was today to swing through the three key regional centres of Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo on the final day of campaigning, just two days after visiting all three centres.
The trio of regional cities will be crucial to the election result and are home to marginal seats like Bendigo East, which the Coalition must win to claim government.
Mr Brumby, a former federal MP for the seat of Bendigo, said he did not expect a regional backlash tomorrow.
“We have backed regional Victoria, we are governing for the whole state,” he said.
The Coalition is expected to pick up a swag of Melbourne eastern suburbs seats it lost under former Liberal premier Jeff Kennett in 1999, meaning regional seats will be crucial.
Mr Baillieu was spending the final day of the campaign in Melbourne seats like Burwood and Mitcham which the Coalition must pick up to win tomorrow.
The Premier also continued the tit-for-tat stoush over policy costings released yesterday, claiming a $648.8 million dollar hole in the Coalition's numbers.
“We have found $648.8 million worth of completely uncosted health promises made by Mr Baillieu. For example, his commitments during the campaign to the Monash Children's (hospital), to the Eye and Ear (hospital), to the Frankston Hospital, to the Ballarat helipad, none of these commitments are costed in the documents he released yesterday,” he said.
“This is a gigantic fraud he has committed on the voters of Victoria.”
Coalition health spokesman David Davis hit back immediately this morning, insisting: “All of the Coalition's health commitments have been fully funded and costed.”
“John Brumby is the most arrogant and untrustworthy leader in Victoria,” he said.
“The Coalition announced earlier this year that all the money from the sale of poker machines licences would be committed to a $1 billion health infrastructure fund which receives the revenue from the sale of poker machines licences. The $1 billion health infrastructure fund which is in our costings has huge capacity to meet all of the Coalition's health commitments.”
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