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ABC News
ABC News
National
Ashleigh Barraclough and staff

Victorian election result may sweep some micro-parties from upper house as vote count continues

Reason Party leader Fiona Patten could lose her upper house seat to former government minister Adem Somyurek, while counting for the Victorian election indicates four micro-parties may be swept from office.

Meanwhile, seven lower house seats are still in doubt, including the seat of Pakenham, where only eight votes separated the lead candidates as of Tuesday morning.

In the upper house, or Legislative Council, Green predicted Labor and the Coalition would each take 15 seats and the remaining 10 would go to the crossbench.

Breaking down the crossbench, he said the count had the Greens on three seats, Animal Justice Party on one, one for the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers, three for the Legalise Cannabis party.

Green said he expected the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) to win at least one seat — and he said the minor party was also likely to win a spot being contested by Ms Patten.

Green said it looked like the Liberal Democrats, Derryn Hinch's Justice Party, Transport Matters and Sustainable Australia would be left with no seats.

"Four of these micro-parties disappeared," he told ABC Radio Melbourne.

"They've always been quite small parties, and they only get elected because of group voting tickets, and they get elected at the expense of parties that get more votes than them.

"The simple answer is: get rid of the [group voting] tickets and let people decide the result."

There have been calls for reform to the "archaic" group voting ticket system, which is only used in Victoria, after secret deals to elect micro-parties were exposed by a leaked video.

Fiona Patten, whose spot in the Northern Metropolitan Region was on a knife edge, said she was "trying not to look" as she waiting for the upper house count to become clearer.

"A lot of the experts are saying … it will be a race between myself and Adem Somyurek," she said.

"As we knew, it's going to be very close at the end.

Mr Somyurek was formerly a Labor minister, but left the party after a bitter fallout with Premier Daniel Andrews.

Ms Patten said many preferences from micro-parties were going to Mr Somyurek, and advocated for the end of group voting tickets — which she believed disadvantaged her.

Premier says he'll work with crossbench 'in good faith'

On Monday, Mr Somyurek commented on social media that reports of his "death" in relation to his upper house bid were "greatly exaggerated".

"You don't call a football match after the first quarter, you don't call a big diverse ballot after 20 per cent of votes counted," he said.

Since Mr Somyurek's comments, more than 45 per cent of the vote has been counted.

At a media event this morning, Premier Daniel Andrews said he was confident of being able to work with crossbench MPs in the new parliament.

"Whatever the upper house is, in terms of its makeup, we'll work with them, we always have," he said.

"We've always been able to get our bills through, pretty much, there's very few that haven't been able to pass.

"So we'll work with that crossbench in good faith."

Mr Andrews said he was hopeful a caucus meeting could be held by the end of this week.

"It'll be clearer in a few days about who's likely to be re-elected and who, perhaps, isn't," he said.

"So we'll just work that through.

"We won't do that in a hasty way, we'll just wait and see how counting continues."

Following the Liberals' unsuccessful election campaign, state director Sam McQuestin stepped down from his role on Tuesday, saying the party was facing significant "internal challenges".

He said he had planned to resign after the election regardless of the outcome.

Labor in a tight contest for previously safe Preston

In the lower house, or Legislative Assembly, Green is yet to call the seats of Bass, Hastings, Hawthorn, Mornington, Northcote, Pakenham and Preston.

The election in Narracan was deferred after the death of the Nationals candidate.

Green said he expected Labor's Nathan Lambert to take Preston, despite the relative success of independent Gaetano Greco.

"For [Mr Greco] to win, he needs 75 per cent of the preferences of everyone else, and 75 per cent is a very high rate to get," Green said.

"He would have to be doing better on preferences than the Greens were."

In Pakenham, where Labor's Emma Vulin is ahead of Liberal David Farrelly by eight votes, Green said pre-poll and absent votes would likely "slightly improve the Labor position".

He said the seat's fate would likely become clearer today.

In Hawthorn, Green said Liberal John Pesutto was well placed to win back the seat he lost to Labor in 2018.

"There would have to be strong pre-poll and absent vote for the independent [Melissa Lowe]," Green said.

"[Mr Pesutto's] looking more comfortable than he was at this time in the last election campaign, where I think he was always in difficulty."

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