Liberal Gisele Kapterian ahead as Bradfield recount imminent

The battle for Bradfield remained on a knife-edge with the formal distribution of preferences slashing a teal lead and pushing the Liberal candidate ahead by six votes on Friday.

Bradfield Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian. Picture: Julian Andrews

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The battle for Bradfield remained on a knife-edge with the formal distribution of preferences slashing a teal lead and pushing the Liberal candidate ahead by six votes on Friday afternoon.

Teal independent Nicolette Boele’s razor-thin lead in Bradfield had been reduced on Friday – first to seven, then four, then three votes – as the Liberals slashed the deficit to move ahead by six votes at the day’s close, ahead of an almost certain recount.

The battle for Paul Fletcher’s former blue-ribbon Sydney seat has seesawed for weeks since the May 3 poll and had provisionally been called earlier this week for Ms Boele, but she was fewer than 100 votes ahead of Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian.

The result is almost certain to go to a recount – called when the margin is fewer than 100 votes – and Friday’s formal distribution of preferences had pushed Ms ­Kapterian ahead of Ms Boele by eight votes at the time of publication.

Major broadcasters last week had called the seat for Ms Kapterian, but her lead was flipped after a batch of international postal votes skewed towards Ms Boele, before the Australian Electoral Com­mission provisionally called the seat for the teal on Monday with a 39-vote lead over Ms Kapterian.

Friday’s count was not a recount, which will probably start next week, but a formal distribution of preferences, of which discrepancies from the initial count are ­located and rectified. That cut deeply into Ms Boele’s lead.

Independent candidate Nicolette Boele. Picture: Damian Shaw

Whatever happens as the final counting takes place, it is increasingly likely that neither Ms Boele nor Ms Kapterian will emerge with a 100-plus lead.

After that recount, the losing candidate has the option of challenging the result in the Court of Disputed Returns.

There is a growing belief among both teal and Liberal camps that – assuming any recount returns a similar razor-thin result – the result will end up in court, most likely over the “formality” or “informality” of any votes counted or not counted.

The Liberals retaining Bradfield would be a rare bright spot in an otherwise dismal campaign, alongside the likely victory of Tim Wilson in Goldstein against teal incumbent Zoe Daniel.

On Friday, in that Melbourne seat, Mr Wilson extended his lead to 152 votes, outside of the sub-100 recount window.

Ms Daniel announced her win on election night, only for Mr Wilson to overtake her off the back of postal votes.

Mr Wilson had a lead of more than a 1000 votes, which was slashed to 128, before bouncing back on Friday.