Malcolm Turnbull and the Coalition may have claimed election victory yesterday, but that doesn’t mean vote tallies are no longer being borked.
Oh no, not at all. Over in the Perth seat of Cowan, Labor candidate Anne Aly looks like a dead cert to succeed Liberal incumbent Luke Simpkins, after it was discovered the preferences from a cool 200 Greens votes had been misattributed to the Libs.
If her lead does indeed hold – and it’s basically assured at this point – she will become the first Muslim woman elected to the federal parliament.
Those votes were originally granted to the Liberals on election night, but the snafu was only picked up this arvo. Today’s amended preference flow gifted her about 160 more votes, meaning Aly is sitting pretty with a lead of 786 votes – a lead evidently large for Bill Shorten’s gang to call it.
A spokesperson for the Libs told the ABC that there are still several thousand absentee and postal votes to count, and Simpkins hasn’t thrown in the towel just yet. FWIW, Aly is also leading the polls for absentee votes, with around 10,0000 still to be assessed.
While the Coalition has won it overall, you better believe 200 misattributed votes can still have a massive impact on the shape of the next federal parliament.
.@AustralianLabor MP Anne Aly says ‘it’s a humble moment’ to be elected to the WA seat of #Cowan #auspol https://t.co/x4a2kuWXeP
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) July 11, 2016
