Liberals pick up key seats in the south to deny Labor a majority

Miranda was called as a Liberal seat by the middle of last week as Liberal MP Eleni Petinos pulled ahead of Labor candidate Simon Earle.

As vote counting continued on the weekend, Ms Petinos' lead had grown to 2292 votes.

Going into the election, the Liberal margin was 14.4 per cent.

Ms Petinos did not reply to requests for comment.

The seat of Holsworthy, which takes in parts of the Menai area, was called for the Liberals on Saturday.

Liberal candidate Tina Ayyad has 50.51 per cent of the votes, two party preferred, figures from the NSW Electoral Commission revealed.

Labor candidate Mick Maroney is trailing by about 600 votes.

Ms Ayyad is a former Liverpool councillor and deputy mayor and is married to the mayor Ned Mannoun.

In St George, sitting MP Mark Coure, hung on to win the seat of Oatley, despite a massive Labor campaign to unseat him.

"It's a stunning victory against the odds," Mr Coure said.

"We had every union leader campaigning against me. it was like the national conference of the ACTU on my doorstep."

The Liberal Party also picked up Terrigal, another seat which was in doubt, denying Labor the 47 seats needed for a majority in the parliament.

Labor will have have either 45 or 46 seats, depending on the result in Ryde, which was still uncertain on Monday. Three independents have guaranteed confidence and supply to a Labor government.