Marty Hunt, Rob Skelton in nervous wait for Nicklin outcome

As the knife-edge vote count for the seat of Nicklin continues, the pair in the middle of the Sunshine Coast tussle has chosen watering holes on opposite sides of the street to wait for the results.

Labor’s Rob Skelton and LNP’s Marty Hunt have pulled up pews at pubs on opposite sides of the street to watch the knife-edge vote count for Nicklin.

A pair of opponents has not only faced off throughout the election campaign.

The two doing battle for the seat of Nicklin in the heart of the Sunshine Coast is also facing off at pubs on opposite sides of the street, as a knife-edge vote count continues.

The 2024 LNP candidate Marty Hunt held the seat before the 2020 state election, in which Labor’s Rob Skelton won by a 0.1 per cent margin.

The pair is battling again in 2024.

After polls closed, Mr Skelton and his loyal crew pulled up a pew at the Royal George Hotel in Currie St, in Nambour while Mr Hunt and his supporters held space at the renovated The Namba across the road.

Mr Hunt said, over a beer, that the LNP were the “underdogs” in the election.

“We knew it was going to be close and it’s close,” he said.

Mr Hunt said he had listened to the community who had spoken about youth crime as well as community safety and crime in general.

“We’re looking forward to a fresh start if that’s what the electorate delivers,” he said.

“CCTV in town and a police beat in town — we’ve been listening.”

The Nicklin seat has a rich history of being a kingmaking seat.

Mr Skelton said it was too early to call the seat, but declared he and his group of volunteers remained “cautiously confident”.

He does not expect to receive results until the morning.

In 2015, then independent Nicklin MP Peter Wellington helped Labor’s Annastacia Palaszczuk form a minority government.

He said at the time he was “just one” of 89 members of parliament and did not want his profile “getting bigger than Ben-Hur”.

In his first term in parliament, Mr Wellington also helped Peter Beattie form minority government.

In this latest battle, Mr Hunt has 2591 votes of more than 8300 total, or 32.56 per cent.

Mr Skelton has 30.61 per cent, or 2436 votes.