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Nationals Win Likely In Eastern RegionThe final seat in Victoria’s new Upper House Eastern Region is still undecided. By Peter Hall - 6th December 2006 - Back to News While the November 25 election saw the clear election of 2 Liberal and 2 Labor members, the fifth and last position is a close contest between The Nationals candidate Peter Hall and the Greens, Louis Delacretaz.
Mr Hall has a slight lead on primary votes and is expected to be elected with a favourable flow of preferences from other parties as candidates are eliminated in the counting process but Mr Hall said the final result may not be known for another week or more.
"I believe 86% of the primary vote has been counted but postal votes are still coming in from interstate and overseas and the VEC needs to be satisfied that any outstanding votes do not affect the order in which candidates are eliminated," Mr Hall said.
"The new 5 member electorates have a complex voting system of above or below the line and with so many variables predicting the final outcome is not easy".
Mr Hall said The Nationals had done outstandingly well at the election and he thanked voters in the Eastern Region for their support.
The Nationals won the seat of Morwell from Labor, held the seat of Gippsland South with an increased majority and had candidates in 5 other Eastern Region lower house seats.
Mr Hall said without the support of these lower house candidates, his likely success in the Eastern Region would not have been possible.
"I would like to thank Chris Nixon (Gippsland East), Peter Ryan (Gippsland South) Russell Northe (Morwell), John Verhoeven (Narracan), Jacky Abbott (Bass), Jim King (Hastings) and Peter McConachy (Gembrook) for their outstanding efforts and to whom
I owe a great deal", Mr Hall said.
The new Upper House Eastern Region extends from Mallacoota to Portsea and north to Lilydale. Mr Hall said representing this huge area in the Victorian Parliament would be a big challenge but one he looked forward to.
"Peter Ryan, Russell Northe, myself and Federal colleague, Peter McGauran form a strong National team and provide a base from which we expect to further build at the next election in 4 years time", Mr Hall said.
Mr Hall suggested a good website to follow progress of election results was:-
www.abc.net.au
He suggested a search of the site for Vic election results and Antony Green’s seat by seat analysis will be found.
Source: http://gippsland.com/ Published by: news@gippsland.com

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