NSW Coalition Retains Government In Predictable State Election Victory


The NSW Liberal Party have convincingly wooed voters today—per Antony Green calling it just moments ago, and his opinion is the only one I’ll take—in the State election, in what may well have been the most anti-climactic and uneventful (hell, Channel 9 virtually called it at the exit poll, before voting booths closed) election we’ve seen in a long while. Go democracy!

The night is young! It’s early days! Too early to call! Said all the panelists from the fairly excruciating election coverage (praying for me, and you, if you found yourself with nothing better to do on this delightful night) across the networks about four thousand times this evening, which was endearing, considering how convincingly and quickly the LNP secured the State election. 

By all accounts it looks as though current NSW Premier Mike Baird has been warming up the top seat only for himself and will be keeping his job as Premier. Significantly, however, Baird’s win today is the first time he was elected into the position by voters.

At the time of writing, the Coalition reduced their previous majority with 52 held seats from the votes counted, the ALP held 31 seats of the votes counted, and the Greens held 1 seat – all per ABC. With more vote counting and pre-polling still to be determined, those figures aren’t definite but are a fairly strong indication for the State government’s upcoming term. 

Despite the controversial disruption to the NSW LNP’s leadership last year over Barry O’Farrell‘s grange-fueled fall from grace, the State has proved to be held strongly by the the Coalition. 

A handy map of how the State looked before today’s result can be found below. The ALP should be seeing a boost in the previous term’s low number of seats: 

Newspoll and Sportsbet were in strong agreement over tonight’s result, with the Coalition cheering over today’sNewspoll in The Australian – leading 55 to 45 on a two-party preferred basis – and the ALP couldn’t nervously pull their collars hard enough over Sportsbet’s reading of the election:

Yikes.

One of the biggest battles from today had all eyes on inner West suburb Newtown, the State’s newest seat at this election. The race was between the two ‘Ennys: Penny Sharpe from the ALP and the Greens’ Jenny Leong, where votes had been anticipated to go down to the ~[polls and] wire[s]~. Jenny Leong however, seems to have won this round, with a kewt congrats tweet from Christine Milne

In Balmain, a similar battle based on preferences was waging, as the progressive seat also anticipated a close call between the Greens and Labor. The Greens pulled a clever stunt at polling booths, according to SMH, as flyers printed in the iconic LNP blue were handed out – encouraging Liberal Party voters to put the Greens #2 on their ballots. 

The state’s most marginal seat, East Hills, however, was under scrutiny today as the NSW Labor Party claimed an election loss would boil down to an unsolicited “smear campaign” waged by their rivals – stickers with the words “paedophile lover” were reportedly stuck on ALP posters of candidate Cameron Murray. 

But the most important thing, folks, is that Antony Green emerged from the ones and zeroes cave of ABC HQ to discern the swings of each seat via a touch screen. What a strange li’l national treasure he is. 

Statements from Baird and Opposition leader Luke Foley to come. 

And that, pretty much, is it. The most predictable State election. You’re welcome?

Lead image by Mark Kolbe via Getty.

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