Victory: New Member for Shepparton Kim O’Keeffe celebrates her Victorian state election victory on Saturday evening, one of three new seats won by the Liberals Coalition partner.
Photo by
Max Stainkamph
It was a superb Victorian election for the green members of the Coalition.
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Kim O’Keeffe won Shepparton for The Nationals, defeating Independent Suzanna Sheed.
The neighbouring electorates of Euroa and Murray Plains also showed their support for the party by returning their respective representatives to power.
State Nationals leader Peter Walsh snared a sixth term in office in Murray Plains, which was effectively the first result called of the evening on Saturday, such was his dominance at the polls.
With 77.8 per cent of the vote counted by the time scrutineers retired to bed in the early hours of Sunday morning, Mr Walsh had secured 63 per cent of the overall votes ahead of Labor’s Damien Hurrell with 18.5 per cent.
“This has been three very tough years for everyone, and the way in which our communities have worked together to meet them head on has been the signature statement of people right across regional Victoria,” Mr Walsh said.
Predicted preference distribution has Mr Walsh retaining the same margin of victory as he did in 2018 at just under 24 per cent.
In Euroa, Annabelle Cleeland has succeeded retiring member Steph Ryan and retained the seat for The Nationals, despite a small swing towards Labor candidate Angela Tough in the two-candidate-preferred count.
Successful handover: In Euroa Annabelle Cleeland takes over the reigns from former deputy leader of the state Nationals Steph Ryan.
Ms Cleeland secured 34.8 per cent of the first preference voting — with 67.1 per cent of the count completed — compared to Ms Tough’s 29.4 per cent and Liberal candidate Brad Hearn’s 21 per cent.
But once preference flows were calculated, Ms Cleeland retained a healthy 12.5 per cent advantage over her nearest rival, after Ms Ryan held the electorate by a 15.3 per cent margin in 2018.
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