Kerryn Phelps ‘all but’ the winner in Wentworth vote count

Kerryn Phelps appears to have all but secured a slim victory over Liberal candidate Dave Sharma.

Independent candidate Kerryn Phelps.

Independent Kerryn Phelps ­appears close to having secured a slim victory over Liberal candidate Dave Sharma in the Wentworth by-election as key Liberals in the seat all but conceded the contest was lost.

A Liberal source said the contest had “been over for a while’’ but denied reports that Liberal scrutineers abandoned their posts during counting of further postal and provisional votes ­yesterday.

Dr Phelps led Mr Sharma by 1643 votes at the end of yesterday’s count, an 89-vote increase on the 1554 margin she held at the beginning of the day.

The Australian Electoral Commission counted 421 provisional votes yesterday — 246 of which went to Dr Phelps — and 511 postal votes, which also appear to have been in Dr Phelps’s favour.

It also preformed further processing and roll-checking of pre-poll declaration votes.

There were reports that Labor scrutineers at yesterday’s counting suggested most votes in the day’s lot were ultimately flowing to Dr Phelps.

It is understood Mr Sharma would have required about 70 per cent of remaining votes from Tuesday to pass her count.

Counting on Tuesday indicated he received just 54.3 per cent of postal votes processed that day, with this proportion appearing to lower as postal votes cast later in the campaign were counted yesterday.

Initial postal votes counted on Sunday may have appeared more favourable to Mr Sharma because they were cast earlier in the campaign, before a string of events — including an anonymous email attacking Dr Phelps, Liberal senators voting for an “it’s OK to be white” motion, and the government’s Jerusalem embassy announcement — surfaced that were understood to damage the Liberal campaign.