The Greens have conceded the loss of the Victorian state seat of Prahran to the Liberals, while the result in the once-Labor stronghold of Werribee remains too close to call.
The Greens leader, Ellen Sandell, said on Sunday the result in the inner-Melbourne seat was close but that it was clear the minor party will “fall just short” when counting resumes on Monday.
“Obviously it’s not the result we had hoped for,” she told reporters.
Sandell said the Greens’ primary vote had held up. But they did not pick up any of Labor voters – despite the party’s decision not to field a candidate in the seat.
She said the Liberal candidate, Rachel Westaway, benefited from the preferences of the former Labor MP turned independent candidate, Tony Lupton, who received 12.8% of primary votes in the counting on Saturday night.
Lupton had instructed voters to preference the Liberals second and Greens last, pushing Westaway to 51.6% in the two-party-preferred vote.
“What actually made the difference here is that we had the Labor party make a decision not to run a candidate in Prahran, which left the field open for a former Labor MP and unofficial Labor candidate to run and funnel preferences to the Liberals,” Sandell said.
“To be honest, I think that progressive voters and Labor voters will be pretty disappointed.”
Turnout in the byelection was also low. According to the Victorian Electoral Commission, just 64.29% of enrolled voters had their ballot counted as of Saturday evening.
Sandell said the low turnout particularly hurt the Greens because a high proportion of young people who rent in the area may have moved since the 2022 election or were away – and there was no option to cast an absentee vote.
“Our primary vote held up despite this [being] a byelection held during the uni summer holidays, when traditionally a lot of young people … weren’t around [and] weren’t able to vote,” she said.
“It bodes very well for the Greens and I am looking forward to winning back the seat at the general state election next year.”
However, Liberal leader Brad Battin credited Westaway’s win to her campaign, which focused on crime and cost of living.
“We know that the message from both of these electorates is that they are sick of the Greens and Labor destroying their lives,” Battin said.
“We are very proud that we can claim victory in a seat that many didn’t think was possible, just three or four weeks ago.”
The premier, Jacinta Allan, on Sunday conceded there was “more to do” to restore trust in her government after a collapse of support for Labor in Werribee.
Both major parties finished Saturday night with less than 30% of the first preference votes, though Labor’s John Lister led Liberal Steve Murphy by 441 votes.
The former Labor stronghold was previously held by the treasurer Tim Pallas, who retired in December.
At the 2022 election he won the seat with a 10.9% margin and 45% first-preference votes.
The swing away from Labor now stands at 10.4%, which would be devastating for the party if replicated at the 2026 state election.
Allan said “working people and families across the state” were “looking to their governments to listen to them and do more to support them, and that’s exactly what I will do”.
“We’ve heard very clearly that people are looking to governments to do more, and we are listening to that and we will,” she said.
Voting will continue in the seat on Monday, when the VEC will also conduct recheck counts.
