Marshall’s seat still in doubt
After a night of postal vote counting, former premier Steven Marshall’s chance of hanging on to his eastern suburbs seat of Dunstan remains on a knife’s edge.
In an update this morning, the Electoral Commission of SA count shows Labor’s candidate Cressida O’Hanlon is still ahead 50.5 per cent to 49.5 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.
Just under 60 per cent of votes have been counted in Dunstan, with scrutineers prioritising the electorate during pre-poll and postal vote counting.
Dunstan recorded in the order of 3800 postal vote applications and 3931 pre-poll votes, with ABC election analyst Antony Green predicting those votes will get Marshall over the line.
“If the trend in today’s count continues then Steven Marshall should win re-election,” Green wrote on his blog last night.
“Based on interstate evidence, postal voting is more likely to favour the Liberal Party where pre-poll voting is more like on the day voting.”
Marshall officially resigned as premier yesterday, after announcing over the weekend that he would step down as leader of the Liberal party.
There have been no changes to the two-party vote in the blue-ribbon regional electorates of Finniss and Hammond, where independents Lou Nicholson and Airlie Keen are serious contenders.
Stay informed, daily
In Flinders – another Liberal-dominated regional seat – independent Liz Habermann’s chance of election has dropped slightly from 55.8 per cent of the two-party preferred vote to 52.8 per cent.
Habermann is up against Liberal candidate and Tumby Bay Mayor Sam Telfer, who remains the favourite to succeed retiring member Peter Treloar,
Meanwhile in the Upper House, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation is looking the favourite to win a place on the crossbench in their first South Australian election campaign since 2006.
The Queensland-based party has so far won roughly 4.2 per cent of the Upper House vote – beating out a glut of conservative minor parties including the Liberal Democrats (3.5 per cent), the revived Family First Party (3.3 per cent), the rebranded Australian Family Party (0.9 per cent) and the Nationals (0.7 per cent).
