Victoria state election result: Greens lie low as they count down their fate

Senior Victorian Greens were keeping a low profile on Sunday while the party anxiously waited for the full extent of its election nightmare to unfold.

As upper house counting progressed on Sunday, the Greens looked to have lost one of its lower house seats, Northcote, and up to four of its five upper house MPs.

The positive notes for the party were the likely retention of the seat of Melbourne and in Brunswick, the battle between Greens candidate Tim Read and Labor’s Cindy O’Connor was too close to call.

Prahran, held by the Greens’ Sam Hibbins, was also still in doubt on Sunday, with the seat locked in a three-way tussle with Labor and the Liberals.

The party that had hoped to hold the balance of power in the lower house was instead fearful of losing seats it had gained in 2014 and in last year's Northcote by-election.

But their campaign was marred by mis-steps.

One candidate quit after posting inappropriate messages on social media; another was revealed to have used misogynistic lyrics in their rap music; while yet another was accused of rape.

All the incidents were ruthlessly exploited by Labor, which launched a ferocious anti-Greens onslaught in the last two weeks of campaigning.

Senior Greens figures were not talking publicly on Sunday as they awaited the electoral fate of their colleagues, but party leader Samantha Ratnam sent a statement to media outlets.

Dr Ratnam said the party’s vote had held up, despite a surge towards Labor across Victoria.

She said key Greens lower house target seats remained in play and backroom preference deals appeared to have been the biggest factor in the makeup of the upper house.

“The resilience of the Greens' vote against huge swings towards Labor shows the strength of our campaign and the platform we put forward," Dr Ratnam said.

“This is far from a mandate for Labor to continue with its plans to sell off public housing, log native forests and dig up brown coal.”

Dr Ratnam criticised the Premier over Labor’s attacks on the Greens.

“If Dan Andrews was truly committed to a progressive state, he should have spent less time attacking the Greens and more time worrying about the backroom deals that have the potential to see a host of right wing MPs controlling the agenda in the upper house,” Dr Ratnam said.