Queensland election results 2017: Rockhampton Mayor Margaret Strelow could win seat

PREMIER Annastacia Palaszczuk could be left red-faced as her preferred candidate for Rockhampton is locked in a nailbiting battle to win the seat – as an independent.

Independant Rockhampton candidate Margaret Strelow.

PREMIER Annastacia Palaszczuk could be left red-faced as her preferred candidate for Rockhampton is locked in a nailbiting battle to win the seat – as an independent.

Rockhampton Mayor Margaret Strelow was caught in the middle of a bitter factional row which saw Ms Palaszczuk’s “captain call” for the right faction’s Ms Strelow ignored and Old Guard faction member Barry O’Rourke selected by the party to run for the seat following the resignation of Agriculture Minister Bill Byrne due to illness. Now running as an independent, Ms Strelow, who supports the Adani mine loan the Premier controversially vetoed, could win the seat after a tight battle with Mr O’Rourke.

Polling last night saw Ms Strelow about 2000 primary votes behind Mr O’Rourke, but she is expected to attract a strong preference flow from LNP and One Nation voters when counting resumes today.

Continually fed up with Labor Party powerbrokers ignoring her state and federal pre-selection bids due to factional issues, Ms Strelow decided to run as an independent this year – ripping up her Labor Party membership at the same time.

Ms Strelow last night took to social media to declare the election result would go down to the wire.

“Thankyou for your support over the past few weeks,” she wrote.

“The result of the election is simply too close to call. Huge thanks especially to those who gave up their time to volunteer!

“I won’t be making any media statement until we have clarity about the result.”

Mr O’Rourke also declined to comment, saying the vote was too tight to call. LNP federal Capricornia MP Michelle Landry said the “power games” behind the scenes may have cost Labor the seat.

“It looks like Robert Schwarten and his power games may have cost Labor the seat of Rockhampton,” she said. Mr Schwarten hit back saying that the LNP vote had ­collapsed in the seat by about 10 per cent.

Originally published as Queensland election results 2017: Rockhampton Mayor Margaret Strelow could win seat