THE Nationals aren’t quite celebrating at Euroa yet despite Steph Ryan retaining a strong lead in the two-party-preferred vote.
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With a third of the vote still to be counted, there’s a chance Liberal Tony Schneider could still claim victory.
Ms Ryan has 65.42 per cent of the two-party preferred, while Labor’s Clare Malcolm sits on 34.58 per cent.
But just 755 votes separate Mr Schneider (7259 votes) and Ms Malcolm (8014) on the primary vote, and 33 per cent of votes taken at pre-poll are still to be counted.
As Ms Malcolm preferenced the Liberals second, it means if there is a swing to the Liberals today Mr Schneider could win.
Yesterday Ms Ryan said she was “quietly confident” but would not claim the seat yet.
“With the pending results coming in I’m ecstatic voters have placed their confidence in me and I will work incredibly hard to repay that if elected,” she said.
“My greatest concern is the issues across the electorate Labor has made no commitment to — we made $50 million in promises to Euroa where Labor has put no money in.
“With the scrapping of the Regional Growth Fund as well, I think it will put regional communities at a real disadvantage.”
Euroa was tipped to be a seat to watch, particularly because of the three-cornered contest between the Liberals and Nationals, which caused much tension between the two parties after the Nationals had claimed the seat as theirs.
Angry Nationals from Benambra travelled to help campaign in Euroa on Saturday, instead of assisting in their own Liberal-held seat, while Liberal volunteers were last week accused of altering how-to-vote cards to the detriment of their Coalition partners.
Asked if the contest had helped or hindered her chances, Ms Ryan said: “If we get there we will have done so without the help of either the Liberal or Labor Party — Labor preferenced the Liberals ahead of us and the Liberals split our vote.
“I think it’s the result of a 10-month campaign and a lot of hard work by many, many people and grassroots members.”
Mr Schneider would not speak with The Border Mail yesterday but a spokesperson said in a statement that he would make a full statement today once the bulk of early votes were counted and the position was clear.
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