Marchant holds Bellarine for Labor in state election win

BELLARINE is staying in Labor hands as Alison Marchant won the seat as part of Labor’s election win on Saturday.

Just under 70 per cent of votes had been counted as of Tuesday night and Ms Marchant had 42 per cent of first preferences and more than 58 per cent of the two-party preferred vote, 6,000 more than Liberal candidate Donnie Grigau.

Ms Marchant was preselected to replace Lisa Neville, and paid tribute to the long-time Labor MP, saying she had “big shoes to fill”.

Ms Marchant attributed her victory to a strong ground game, with volunteers doorknocking and making phone calls about Laobr’s “positive plan” to voters “so they could make a really good decision”.

“We could only do that when we had conversations with people,” she said.

“This is not our [Labor candidates] win, this is your win, this is everyone’s win.

“It makes a difference to people’s lives to have a Labor government.”

In the Upper House, counting in the six seats in the Western Victorian Region is 70 per cent complete.

Based on the indicative quotas, lead Labor candidates Jacinta Ermacora and Gayle Tierney will be elected; the Liberals have 1.67 quotas, so Beverley McArthur will hold her seat and Joe McCracken is likely to be elected; and the Greens have 0.5 quotas, putting Sarah Mansfield in line to win the fifth seat.

All seats are dependent on preference flows – Legalise Cannabis Victoria candidate Andrew Dowling is next best with 0.29 quotas.

Incumbents Stuart Grimley from Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party and Andy Meddick from the Animal Justice Party are some way back, at 0.11 and 0.10 respectively.

Across Victoria, Labor looks set to win at least 51 seats in the lower house, six more than the number needed for an outright majority and giving Premier Daniel Andrews a third term.

The Liberals will win at least 25 seats but will have to choose a new leader, with Opposition Leader Matthew Guy announcing on Sunday he would resign from the role and would not contest the position.