Wannon vote count stopped and restarted leaving front runners in limbo

The AEC has stopped and restarted the two-candidate-preferred vote count for the seat of Wannon as frontrunners Dan Tehan and Alex Dyson are not the top two based on votes.

The race to the Wannon seat has hit a hurdle as the Australian Electoral Commission stop and restart their two-candidate-preferred vote count.

The AEC predicted the frontrunners to be Liberal MP Dan Tehan and independent Alex Dyson on election day.

However it became obvious to the AEC their predicted frontrunners are not the top two based on votes.

An AEC spokesperson said there is no delay in the vote count but a misunderstanding of how the counting process works for some.

“On election night we start two counts – first preferences and a two-candidate-preferred (TCP) count,” the spokesperson said.

“We estimate the top two candidates to provide as early an indication of who’ll win the seat as possible – making election night results possible.

“However, if it becomes obvious that our estimated top two in a contest are in fact not the top two based on the votes, we stop that count.

“This is what happened for Wannon, as it did for a number of House of Reps contests last night (and do every election).”

The AEC said a fresh two-candidate-preferred vote count will begin in the days after the election day once they are certain they know the top two frontrunners.

“In contests where we need to reset the TCP (like Wannon), you’ll have first preference counts still available but not the TCP until a fresh one begins in the days after election day.

“When a fresh TCP starts depends on when we’re sure of who will be the top two candidates. If this takes a while then we may make a decision to conduct a 3CP count.”

Liberal MP Dan Tehan was set to win the seat of Wannon, leading with 44.69 per cent of the votes as of Tuesday at 8.30am.

Wannon has been a safe liberal seat since 1955, however the 2022 election is showing to be marginal with Mr Tehan receiving less than 56 per cent of votes.

The two parties preferred are Mr Tehan (Liberal) with 44.69 per cent and Mr Dyson (Independent) at 20.4 per cent of votes as of Monday.

In an online statement Mr Dyson said being behind in the announcement while the AEC confirm preferences is a testament to how close frontrunners are in the count.

“While other electorates have celebrated their #IndependentsDay, we’re still a little behind in the count in Wannon, but the fact the AEC is still figuring out preferences to be sure who won is a testament to just how close we’ve gotten,” Mr Dyson said.

“And the amount of messages I’ve received, alongside the amount of car beeps and shakas I’ve copped walking around Warrnambool today shows the impact we made goes so much deeper than just the numbers. And that really warms my heart.

“It can be really easy to feel like politics doesn’t affect you. But I think what this weekend showed is that we can affect politics, and affect it in a big way.”

Liberal MP Dan Tehan and Independent Alex Dyson are the leading frontrunners in the first preference vote count for Wannon, however an announcement of the winner is yet to come. Picture: Supplied

The top two candidates in 2019 for Wannon were Dan Tehan and Labor opponent Maurice Billi.

Now, independent Alex Dyson has overtaken Labour in the polls, while voters swung away from MP Dan Tehan at -6.40 per cent.

Mr Dyson is currently the sixth candidate with the highest positive swing in votes across Victoria at +10.44 per cent.

Out of the six highest swings in votes, four were independent candidates — including Monique Ryan, Zoe Daniel, Deb Leonard and Alex Dyson.

A change in support with an upswing for Independents appears to be an emerging theme this election.

More to come.