Liberal Tim Wilson has said he is “very relaxed” despite his lead over Zoe Daniel in the Melbourne seat of Goldstein slipping to 206 votes with late postal and overseas ballots from as far away as Nairobi still to be counted.
Candidates in the Sydney seat of Bradfield also face an anxious weekend, with no more counting to take place until Monday. On Friday afternoon, Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian led the independent candidate, Nicolette Boele, by just 43 votes.
In Goldstein, there were 256 ballots awaiting processing shortly before 5pm. The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) said that number was likely to rise once postal and overseas ballots were received before the Friday midnight deadline, but it was difficult to determine by how much. It estimated between 30 to 50 votes.
Wilson was declared the projected winner of Goldstein last week and had already started fundraising for his “campaign war” against Labor’s plan to change taxation of superannuation accounts with balances of more than $3m. On Friday morning, he solicited donations on his LinkedIn page, despite the vote narrowing.
“I’m extremely grateful to my wonderful scrutineers that are ensuring this vote count has integrity and will deliver the will of the people,” Wilson told Guardian Australia. “And I’m very relaxed about the result because it is the will of the people of Goldstein.”
Daniel, who won the seat of Wilson at the 2022 election, would need the vast majority of remaining ballots to break for her to change the outcome of the poll. On Friday evening she was yet to concede defeat, despite Wilson claiming victory.
“Thank you to the voters of Goldstein for your patience while this tight count continues, to my scrutineers for your extraordinary effort, and to the AEC staff who oversee this important democratic process,” Daniel said.
In Bradfield, scrutineers had expected to begin counting shortly after midday but were told that would no longer be happening by the AEC.
“All outstanding ballot papers will be opened and added to the count after they’ve been marked off the electoral roll on Monday, before we begin the full distribution of preferences,” an AEC spokesperson said. “We expect this count to take up most of next week.”
An automatic recount is ordered if the margin remains within 100 votes once that process has been completed. One senior NSW Liberal source said that appears the likely outcome.
The acting AEC commissioner, Jeff Pope, said “a few thousand” votes would come in on Friday, including around 120 from Nairobi, before the midnight deadline.
“We will have staff potentially out at Sydney airport at late hours tonight, before midnight, trying to pick up some of these votes,” Pope said.
The AEC declined to provide details of any flights carrying the final votes into the country for fear of “mischief”.
Pope said candidates could request a recount once all preferences had been distributed even if the margin was higher than 100.
“What they really need to be focusing on is solid evidence for us to be considering about whether there has been any issues that have occurred during the counting process that could have impacted the outcome,” Pope said.
On Thursday, Wilson urged his scrutineers in Goldstein to “knock out informal votes being counted” for Daniel, warning that her team has done this “with extreme precision” against him this week.
Leaked messages from a WhatsApp group called “Goldstein blue tsunami” showed Wilson told supporters that the narrowing vote should not be a problem for his campaign but it “highlights the EXTREME necessity for scrutineers to be available”.
Pope said it was “absolutely the right of scrutineers to be there and to challenge votes”.
“Very rarely in recounts do you come across votes that have been included that are then ruled informal as by the time you get to that stage, these votes have been counted three times potentially in the presence of scrutineers,” Pope said.
