ACT senator Zed Seselja is pinning his hopes of re-election on postal and pre-poll ballots but his path to victory is narrow, with Greens and other independent preference votes likely to favour independent candidate David Pocock.
Senator Seselja has made his first public statement on Facebook following the election. He said the results were disappointing for the Liberal Party across the nation. Commenting on his own chances, Senator Seselja said it was too early to determine a result.
"Much of the vote is yet to be counted, including significant numbers of pre-poll and postal ballots, which traditionally provide a boost to the Liberal count," he said.
"Whatever the result may be, I am proud of the campaign we ran in the ACT."
Senator Seselja also noted the influence of Climate-200 backed candidates.
"In the ACT, as we saw in other Liberal seats across the country, we faced an extremely well-funded and targeted Climate 200 campaign for the Senate seat," he said.
"These coordinated campaigns resulted in the loss of many traditionally safe Liberal seats. It also delivered a swing against Liberal and Labor in the ACT Senate race, though the exact nature of that swing is unknown, as there is much counting to come."
Senator Seselja's Facebook post comes after organisers of the senator's election night function barred media from covering the elected official's speech.
This was despite earlier indications that media would be welcomed at the event.
Mr Pocock and Senator Seselja are around 2000 votes apart in early ACT Senate vote counting, pointing to a potential historic upset and a changing of the guard in the representation for national capital.
Rugby great and Climate 200-backed independent, Mr Pocock, has received 22.08 per cent of primary votes, just 1786 votes behind of the Liberal ticket on 23.41 per cent of primary votes with 43 per cent of ballots counted.
Counting in the Senate race will resume on Monday.
The Labor vote was firmly in front with 33.2 per cent of the primary vote count, ensuring Senator Katy Gallagher will be returned for another three-year term, as territory senators do not serve six-year terms like those representing Australia's states.
The Greens had 10.5 per cent of the primary vote late on Saturday night, a decline of more than 7 per cent on their 2019 result.
Professor Kim Rubenstein, who also ran as an independent with Climate 200 funding, will be the first major candidate to be knocked out, having just 4.5 per cent of the primary vote.
Mr Pocock, who was celebrating at QT Hotel in Canberra, said the rise of independents had made people reconsider the role of politics and what voters wanted for the ACT.
"Today has been a monumental day in Australian politics," Mr Pocock said of the national rise of independents.
"The preliminary results here in the ACT are very encouraging. Our campaign set out make politics about people again, talking about the issues that matter to us and ensuing the ACT isn't taken for granted.
"We've already seen more focus on Canberra from the major parties and built a movement of people who want to see politics done better."
The Liberal campaign in the ACT kicked out journalists covering their election night function before Zed Seselja arrived.
Only first preferences are counted on election night. It could be days or weeks before the final winner of the second Senate seat is known once preference flows are calculated.
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