Update, Friday September 13, 9:26am: Nickolas Varvaris' lead extended to 961 votes.
Thursday:
The safe Labor seat of Barton, held by former attorney general Robert McClelland since 1996, has turned marginal and is likely to fall to the Liberals.
As the gap widens between the Liberal’s Nickolas Varvaris and Labor’s Steve McMahon, the likelihood of this happening is growing stronger.
By late afternoon today (September 12), Mr Varvaris was 789 votes ahead of Mr McMahon (two candidate preferred) — a 7.4 per cent margin.
Since the counting began, the contest between the Kogarah mayor (Varvaris) and the former Hurstville mayor (McMahon) has been described as being on a ‘‘knife edge’’ with a ‘‘paper thin margin’’ and ‘‘a tense roller-coaster ride’’ with a possible ‘‘photo finish’’.
Mr McMahon was leading by 68 votes on Monday; by Tuesday night, Mr Varvaris hit the lead and has been expanding that lead since.
Mr McMahon was still hopeful this afternoon, saying there were another 7000 or 8000 votes to count.
‘‘Tomorrow, we will know more,’’ he said.
‘‘We will just have to wait and see; it’s very tight and whatever will be will be. I’m going back to work on Monday and getting on with life.’’
Mr McMahon, who was campaign manager for Oatley MP Kevin Greene who lost the state seat in 2011 by 440 votes, placed blame for such a close result at independent candidate Michael Nagi, a Rockdale councillor, who preferenced the Liberals.
‘‘Given that he directed preferences to the Liberals and his track record of supporting them on Rockdale Council, it was clearly a plan to draw votes away from Labor,’’ Mr McMahon said.
‘‘I am told that when Tony Abbott visited Arncliffe on election day, he thanked Nagi.’’
Mr Nagi said he set out to make Barton marginal and ‘‘my dream has come true’’.
‘‘The community is the winner,’’ he said.
‘‘Barton has long been neglected because it has been a safe Labor seat.
‘‘We need to make it a marginal seat if we are to rejuvenate our local area and community, and deliver the services and infrastructure sorely lacking.’’
Numerous attempts to contact Mr Varvaris for comment were unsuccessful.
Covering 44 square kilometres, Barton fronts the beaches along Botany Bay and includes Sandringham, Sans Souci, Monterey, Brighton-Le-Sands, Kogarah, Bexley, Rockdale, Arncliffe, Earlwood, Kingsgrove and Beverly Hills.
Robert McClelland’s decision to retire gave the Liberal Party a good chance of winning the seat, but the 6.9 per cent margin was considered a big stretch.
Who do you think will win?
See related stories: http://www.theleader.com.au/story/1764593/abbott-flees-ambush-at-arncliffe/?cs=12
