Labor leader Chris Minns was in the Strathfield electorate on Saturday night,celebrating with supporters of ALP candidate Jason Yat-sen Li at Burwood RSL.
Mr Minns said the fight for Labor to win the 2023 state election started on Saturday night.
“Many people in NSW sent the Premier of NSW a message at the ballot box today. The Premier needs to listen to that message:the government needs to change direction,it must listen to expert advice,” Mr Minns said.
In Bega,a majority of people voted ahead of the byelection – including almost 30 per cent at pre-poll booths and 21 per cent by post – but the swing to Labor on the day indicated that the ALP would win the seat.
Several senior Liberals had expressed concern the party would lose the South Coast seat due to a number of factors,including lagging bushfire recovery and the resignation of popular long-term MP Andrew Constance.
The Liberals had anticipated holding Willoughby,but suffered a significant swing against it.
Speaking at a Willoughby polling booth earlier on Saturday,Mr Perrottet said the results of the byelections would not change his government’s approach to the pandemic.
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“Labor wants to put a handbrake on the state,and we want to move forward ... that brings with it challenges,but ultimately the alternative is to go into lockdown. We need to rejoin the world … and we have to keep going,” Mr Perrottet said.
Asked whether the byelections were a referendum on his leadership,Mr Perrottet said:“I see this as a vote in terms of whether you want to go backwards or forwards.”
Mr Perrottet also echoed the praise his Liberal candidate Bridget Sakr gave retiring Labor leader Jodi McKay. In a letter to Strathfield voters on Friday,Ms Sakr said Ms McKay was an “inspiration to women”.
NSW Electoral Commissioner John Schmidt warned that the final declaration of results would take longer than usual,given the reliance on postal votes amid the pandemic.
The Electoral Commission was not planning to count all pre-poll votes on Saturday night and postal vote counting is not scheduled to start until February 25.
Mr Schmidt said final results would not be declared until all postal votes were received and subsequently announced publicly on March 11.
Problems with the state’s online voting system iVote meant it could not be used in the byelections. The commission in January said its online system required “extensive reconfiguration and testing” before it could operate again with integrity.
The new reliance on postal votes by the electoral commission has left both the Coalition and Labor concerned about the number of invalid votes that will need to be discounted.
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NSW Labor head office has estimated there could be as many as 1500 spoiled votes in Strathfield,which the party holds by just 5 per cent.
Mr Minns started his day in Bega with candidate Michael Holland before flying to Strathfield.
Mr Minns was quick to play down the impact of Saturday’s byelections on his chance of becoming premier at next year’s poll.
“We think this is a chance for voters to send a message to Dominic Perrottet,but we don’t want to read any wider message from that,” Mr Minns said in Moruya on Saturday morning.
“There’s a lot of governing between now and then. Our overwhelming sense about politics in NSW is that it will change.“
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