The chances of an unlikely comeback victory for Liberal Steve Martin became even more remote on Tuesday after postal votes in the Indi election only came back narrowly in his favour.
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Independent candidate Helen Haines started the day 2865 votes ahead after votes cast on Saturday and at the pre-poll centres had been counted.
The Australian Electoral Commission counted 1938 of the 7236 election's postal votes yesterday.
Mr Martin won 52.55 per cent of those votes, compared to Dr Haines' 47.45 per cent, which - also after a recount of the election day ballots - cut her overall margin to 2654 votes.
Dr Haines' election team remained confident the independent had an insurmountable lead.
"On the current trend, Helen Haines will win Indi with an estimated margin of about 2.7 per cent," a spokesman for the independent said.
"The independent candidate after today's count of postal votes is 2654 votes ahead the Liberal candidate on a two candidate-preferred basis.
"Mr Martin, on a TCP basis, would have to win more than 70 per cent of the votes still to be counted to remain in contention."
The biggest booth win for the Liberals on Saturday came at Goorambat where they had 64.71 of the two-candidate preferred vote.
Absentee votes are also yet to be counted.
Mr Martin has performed better than previous Liberal candidate Sophie Mirabella did against independent Cathy McGowan in 2016 and, on current numbers, has recorded a 4.01 per cent swing towards his party.
He was not available yesterday and is expected to comment today when the results continue to become clear.
Scrutineers from both the Liberal and independent camps remain in Wangaratta as the votes are counted by the AEC.
Meanwhile in the Farrer election, the AEC is yet to count any of the 5786 postal votes received.
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