Labor pulls ahead in the race for Macquarie as contest goes down to the wire

Labor’s Susan Templeman is now 284 votes ahead of her Liberal rival but in an indication of just how close the contest is, just seven votes were separating the two earlier today.

Yesterday, the two-party preferred count showed 27 votes separated the candidates, with Ms Templeman overtaking Sarah Richards’s 40-vote lead from the day before.

Labor’s candidate has now cemented her advantage with 93.09 per cent of the vote counted.

The Australian Electoral Commission website shows Labor incumbent Susan Templeman ahead of Ms Richards.

AEC results for the electorate of Macquarie. Picture: AEC.Source:Supplied

Macquarie was originally expected to be an easy Labor win and Prime Minister Scott Morrison was elated at the Liberal result, proudly announcing last week: “Sarah Richards, we’re bringing back Macquarie!” to a chorus of loud cheers, but the race is still on.

If the margin between the first and second candidates is less than 100 votes after preferences are distributed, a full recount is conducted.

Macquarie, Queensland seat of Lilley and the Tasmanian seat of Bass are the only seats remaining on the AEC’s too-close-to-call list.

However, ABC election analyst Antony Green’s election calculator, has called the seat ofLilley for Labor’s candidate Anika Wells; and the seat of Bass for the Liberals’ Bridget Archer.

According to the AEC website, just 585 votes separate the candidates in Bass and 919 votes separate the candidates in Lilley.

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Macquarie candidates Sarah Richards and Susan Templeman will be eagerly watching today’s count.Source:Supplied

The retiring Wayne Swan left his seat of Lilley to be contested by first-time Labor candidate Ms Wells.

Yesterday she waved at peak-hour drivers on the busy Sandgate Road seat in Brisbane’s north to thank voters for their support.

“We didn’t take this for granted for a single hour, and it turns out every single hour mattered,” she told ABC News.

“We’ve treated this like a marginal seat for the 13 months that I’ve been the endorsed candidate.”

The latest results show Prime Minister Scott Morrison on track for a majority of 77 seats.

Labor has 66 seats, with the possibility of 67, and there are six crossbenchers.