Polls close in Victorian election

POLLS have closed in Victoria, with counting of ballots under way, in what is tipped to be a slow night of counting.

Before voting closed, outgoing senior member of the Andrews Government and former police minister Lisa Neville is predicting a Labor win but only just.

“What we’ll see is some big swings, taking us back to where we were really in 2014 – a bit closer to that,” she told Sky News earlier today (Saturday, November 26).

“We can get over the line but it will be a long night.”

Outgoing Liberal MP Tim Smith predicted no uniform swing, describing the poll as a series of 87 by-elections.

“Everyone should hold on to their hats. I think we’ll going to be here for a very long time tonight,” he said on the Sky panel.

Former Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger said Labor would lose Richmond and Northcote to the Greens, as well as Bass and Nepean to the Liberals.

Speaking after voting opened, Premier Daniel Andrews said urged Victorians to opt for a strong, stable, majority Labor government as polls pointed to the potential for a hung parliament.

Pressed on his position on working closely with the Greens or independents to form a minority government, Mr Andrews said his position had been clear for more than a decade.

“No deal will be offered and no deal will be done,” he told ABC TV.

Liberal leader Matthew Guy, who steered the opposition to a crushing defeat at the 2018 election, said he was confident of victory despite the polls strongly favouring Labor.

“I am confident that Victorians will, at the end of the day, opt for a new government and a fresh start,” he told reporters after voting in Templestowe.

Mr Guy said this year’s election had a very different feel to the one four years ago and voters were genuinely looking for an answer to the woes of our health system, which they trusted the Coalition to fix.

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.

The Premier broke with tradition to cast his ballot early on Thursday evening, voting outside his electorate of Mulgrave alongside wife Catherine and two of his children.

A Newspoll published last night showed Labor on track to return despite a swing against it of almost three per cent.

Labor leads the Coalition 54.5 per cent to 45.5 per cent on a two-party preferred basis, according to the poll published by The Australian.

Labor starts on 55 lower house seats and would need to shed 11 to lose its grip on power. Newspoll has it on track to keep 45 to 50 seats.

The coalition has 27 seats and must pick up an extra 18 to govern outright.

However, the latest Resolve poll indicated Labor could lose between eight and 12 seats, putting it in danger of slipping into minority government.

In a final pitch to voters, Victorian Greens leader Samantha Ratnam promised more affordable housing and stronger action on climate change.

Both parties hammered home messages to voters with text messages urging them to support their parties on election day.

Former Labor premier Steve Bracks said the polls indicated there had been a late surge towards the government, but the results were likely to be patchy across the state.

“Clearly in some of Labor’s heartland, we’ll see some bigger swings against Labor – probably not enough to lose the seats, not many seats,” he told Sky News.

–  WITH AAP