The Liberal Party has snatched the seat of Banks in the Coalition's big election win while Barton is a 'photo finish'.
Labor candidate for Banks Daryl Melham called his Liberal opponent, David Coleman, this morning to concede.
Mr Coleman leads by 2656 votes, with postal votes still to be counted.
In Barton, Labor’s Steve McMahon leads Liberal candidate Nick Varvaris by a mere 98 votes.
The result will depend on postal votes, which are expected to favour the Liberal Party.
Mr McMahon said it would be a “photo finish”.
“If I win, I win. If I lose, I win, because I still have a job and a lovely family.”
Mr McMahon said Labor scrutineers said he would have benefited from a large number of votes, which were declared invalid because only one box was numbered.
In federal elections, all boxes have to be numbered, whereas in NSW state elections only one box needs to be numbered.
It is Mr McMahon’s second election “nail-biter” election in two and a half years, as he was campaign manager for Kevin Greene, who lost the State seat of Oatley in 2011 by a handful of votes.
Mr Varvaris could not be contacted.
In Sutherland Shire, there were big swings to sitting Liberal MPs Scott Morrison (Cook) and Craig Kelly (Hughes).
Labor’s Sharon Bird comfortably retained the seat of Cunningham despite a 3.1 per cent swing against the ALP.
WHAT do you think of the election result? See more in Tuesday's Leader.
SATURDAY:10.30pm: The Liberal Party appears to have won the seat of Banks, while Barton remains on a knife-edge.
Liberal candidate for Banks David Coleman holds a three per cent advantage over Labor’s Daryl Melham with 67 per cent of the vote counted.
In Barton, with more than 75 per cent of the vote counted, Labor’s Steve McMahon is hanging on to a 0.4 per cent lead.
Mr McMahon was campaign manager for former Oatley MP Kevin Greene, who lost his seat in 2011 in a cliff-hanger result, said the experience had taught him it was better to be slightly ahead on polling night, than trailing by a small margin.
10.20pm: Tony Abbott declares he will form a new government that is competent and trustworthy"..."Australia is under new management."
10pm: Kevin Rudd concedes defeat and with "a heavy heart" say he won't contest Labor leadership.
9pm: The Liberal Party is ahead in the seat of Banks as votes in the federal election continue to be counted tonight.
The result in Barton is line ball.
At 9pm ALP candidate Steve McMahon's campaign team, who gathered for a function at Jubilee Oval, Kogarah, advised he was ahead by 0.4 per cent with six or seven booths and 8000 pre-poll votes to be counted tonight.
In Sutherland Shire, the Liberals easily retained the seats of Cook and Hughes.
Veteran Labor MP Daryl Melham refused to give up hope of retaining Banks.
He said most of the booths still to report their votes favoured him at the last election.
Mr Melham said the result might depend on 8000 postal votes which will not be counted until later in the week.
Meanwhile the team behind Liberal candidate David Coleman cheered at their Club Rivers function as the ABC declared the ALP looked set to lose the seat.
It was felt the result would not be known tonight.
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