Liberal leader Brad Battin optimistic as Werribee by-election vote count on hold

Victorian Liberal leader Brad Battin says victory for the Liberals in the traditionally safe Labor seat of Werribee will be ‘difficult, but it’s not impossible’.

Victorian Liberal leader Brad Battin remains hopeful his party can claim victory in Werribee. Picture: Valeriu Campan/NewsWire.

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Victorian Liberal leader Brad Battin remains hopeful his party can pull off a historic win in Werribee.

The seat, which Labor has held since 1979, remains on a knife edge following Saturday’s by-election, with Labor narrowly leading the Liberals in the count by just 441 votes on a two-party-preferred basis.

While Mr Battin conceded it would be a “big challenge”, he said he remained hopeful candidate Steve Murphy could pull ahead and claim victory for the Liberals.

“To get over the line right now, it’ll be difficult, but it’s not impossible,” Mr Battin said on Tuesday.

“There’s hope, and we’ll work towards seeing every vote count, and fingers crossed we’ll manage to just get over the line, but it will be difficult.”

Brad Battin with the Liberal Party’s candidate for Werribee, Steve Murphy. Picture: David Crosling/NewsWire

The tight race for the outer-suburban seat is set to drag on until at least the end of the week, with about 4000 votes unlikely to be counted until Friday.

Victorian Electoral Commission counting on a two-party-preferred basis had Labor narrowly leading the Liberals, 50.55 per cent to 49.45 per cent, with about 75 per cent of the votes counted as of 1am Sunday.

The count, which comprised all votes cast on election day, all early votes and all postal votes received by election night, has not been updated since then.

The VEC expects to release further primary results on Friday evening, the deadline for receipt of the 4111 remaining postal votes.

Preference distributions will then take place over the following days.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan with Labor’s candidate for Werribee, John Lister. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Mr Battin on Tuesday said he understood the community’s “frustration” that results weren’t being updated but stopped short of criticising the VEC.

Regardless of the final result, the Werribee by-election has seen a large swing against the Allan Labor government in a heartland seat where the party picked up 45 per cent of the primary vote at the state election just over two years ago.

As of Sunday, Labor candidate John Lister had won just 28.71 per cent of the primary vote, putting him just behind Mr Murphy, who was at 29.04 per cent, while independent candidate Paul Hopper had picked up 14.7 per cent.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has attributed voter backlash against her government to the global cost-of-living crisis, and said her government needs to, and will do, more for local communities.