Labor declares victory, tipped to hold four Geelong region seats

A VICTORIOUS Premier Daniel Andrews has told the supporters the Victorian election was a resounding vote for strong, stable majority Labor government.

“Reforming giant and Labor icon Paul Keating once said to me, ‘son, leadership is not about doing what is popular, leadership is about doing what is right,'” he said at a party in his Melbourne electorate of Mulgrave.

“Essentially, he was telling me that leadership is about doing what matters and that’s exactly what the people of this great state have endorsed today.”

About 10.50pm today (Saturday, November 26), Matthew Guy finally made a concession speech.

“Post this election that we come together as Victorians know that the best of our state should be ahead of us, not behind us,” he told the party faithful at Doncaster.

“There have been some truly tremendous swings to our side of politics in Melbourne’s north and west, swings above 15 per cent approaching 20 per cent in Melbourne’s northern and western suburbs.”

Labor will govern Victoria for the next four years, with Mr Andrews leading the party to a third term in government.

Labor was predicted to have at least 49 seats on Saturday night, to govern in its own right.

TV networks had declared Labor would hold four of the Geelong region seats – Lara, Bellarine, South Barwon and Geelong – and Labor candidate Hutch Hussein was not far behind in the Liberal-held seat of Polwarth.

“Congratulations @DanielAndrewsMP, what a great win,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese tweeted soon after the result became clear.

Earlier in the evening, former Strictly Ballroom star Paul Mercurio clinched the seat of Hastings for Labor from the Liberals.

But it was not the only seat to change hands, as former professional tennis player Sam Groth declared victory in the seat of Nepean on the Mornington Peninsula, prying it from Labor early in the count.

“I certainly wasn’t expecting them to call it this this early in the night, I’m very happy,” Mr Groth said.

“I haven’t had the chance to have a beer yet.”

Labor’s Chris Brayne won the seat in 2018 with a one per cent margin.

Senior Liberal Georgie Crozier told Seven she was disappointed in early voting.

“We’ve worked hard, we had what I felt was a very strong message, which clearly the Victorian public haven’t taken,” the coalition health spokeswoman said.

Earlier on Saturday, some Victorians had to hand-write votes on blank ballot papers as a number of centres ran out on election day.

The Victorian Electoral Commission confirmed the ballot paper shortage on Twitter on Saturday night.

“In the interim voters were provided with blank ballots, with candidates’ names handwritten on the ballot. This is an acceptable approach in this situation,” the commission said.

Polls closed at 6pm on Saturday, after weeks of early voting in which nearly two million Victorians pre-polled.

Almost half of the 4.4 million enrolled Victorians had already cast their ballots at early voting centres or by post, leading to a warning from the electoral commission it could delay results on election night.

– WITH AAP