Cindy McLeish defied the statewide trend against the Liberals-Nationals coalition inl ast Saturday’s Victorian elections.
Premier Daniel Andrews’s team was convincingly returned to government for another four-year term, gaining seats in the Lower House.
Final voting figures are still being assembled for the Upper House.
Ms McLeish was cautious about claiming victory on Saturday night.
“It is not over to it’s over but it is looking favourable,” she told The Weekly Times.
“It is tight and you don’t take anything for granted.”
She added the statewide swing against the Liberals was “extremely disappointing”.
Ms McLeish worked in her recent term, and was a consistent performer in the lead-up to the election.
She managed to keep most of her 3.8 per cent margin, whilst statewide the conservatives lost 14 more seats to Labor.
The Victorian Electoral Commission said on Saturday night (Nov. 24) that the total enrolment for the Eildon seat this year was 44,881.
Some 30,699 votes were cast, as at Saturday night, with 1674 (5.17 per cent of the total votes) being informal. This took the total votes to 32,373, representing 72.13 per cent of the total enrolment as at the close of rolls.
Saturday’s stormy, wet weather is expected to have played a role in comparatively small voter turn-out.
Early voting played an important part in this year’s State Election.
In the first preference votes, counted by late Saturday night, Cindy McLeish (Liberal) won with 15,160, followed by Sally Brennan (Labor) with 10,902, then Ken Deacon (Australian Greens) with 2986; and Michelle Dunscombe (Independent) with 1651.
Although listed as an independent, and having no preferences on her how-to-vote card, a number of Ms Dunscombe’s polling booth volunteers also handed out Labor now-to-vote cards.
A Dunscombe campaign worker said that 13 of the 39 polling booths in Eildon were covered on Election Day by team members.
As at late Saturday night, on a two-candidate preferred vote basis, Ms McLeish had 16,320 votes, and Ms Brennan had 14,378.
Only 1942 such votes separated the two major candidates.
Ms Brennan’s campaign was interrupted by illness, where bronchitis prevented her from speaking on a number of days.
Ms Brennan failed to appear at a candidates’ meeting at Mansfield, as well as other meetings at Alexandra and Kinglake.
She lacked office back-up, handling many media releases personally, or delegating them to the office of Jaclyn Symes MLC, which did not work to maximum potential.
For example, Ms McLeish was the only Lower House candidate to publish advertisements in The Local Paper. Advertising pays.
As at Saturday night, there were 32,373 total votes cast in the electorate, with 3894 early votes (12 per cent), and 3691 postal votes (11.4
per cent). Absent Votes had not been included in Saturday night figures.
The busiest voting centres were (in order): Mansfield (2431), Healesville Central (2134), Yarra glen (1542), Alexandra (1518), Woori Yallock (1318), Badger Creek (1144), Healesville (1108), Yea (1068), Yarra Junction (718), Kangaroo Ground (709), Kinglake (707), Panton Hill (676), St Andrews (675), Launching Place (661), Kinglake West (645), Wesburn (629), Eildon (561), Millgrove (515), Bonnie Doon (421), Warburton East (405), Gladysdale (390), Arthurs Creek (324), Merrijig (324), Yarck (302), Flowerdale (297), Warburton (284), Buxton (283), Dixons Creek (283), Hoodles Creek (280), Marysville (273), Jamieson (258), Taggerty (247), Toolangi (246), Tolmie (236), Glenburn (218), Thornton (212), Piries-Goughs Bay (204), Merton (135), Narbethong (117)