Two seats retained by incumbents, third like to go to a left-leaning independent in Tasmanian Legislative Council election 2019

Liberal candidate Nic Street says he is not expecting to win the Legislative Council seat of Nelson, despite being ahead on primary votes.

Labor’s Jo Siejka and Opposition Leader Rebecca White celebrate Ms Siejka’s re-election as Pembroke MLC. Picture: SUPPLIED

LIBERAL candidate Nic Street says he is not expecting to win the Legislative Council seat of Nelson, despite being ahead on primary votes.

With two left-leaning independent candidates — Vica Bayley and Meg Webb — second and third on primary votes, Mr Street and political commentators say it’s unlikely he will get enough preferences to get over the line in the division that includes Sandy Bay and Kingston.

Incumbent members have been returned in the other two divisions to go to the polls this weekend, with Labor’s Jo Siejka re-elected in the Eastern Shore division of Pembroke, and the Liberals’ Leonie Hiscutt re-elected in the North-West division of Montgomery.

Deputy Premier Jeremy Rockliff on Sunday congratulated Ms Hiscutt and seemed to be holding out hope Mr Street would be elected in Nelson.

“The election’s not over and there are lots of counting to go in terms of where we are now with our very strong Liberal Party primary vote and indeed the final result,” Mr Rockliff said.

But political commentators Kevin Bonham and Richard Herr both say Nelson is likely to be won by either Mr Bayley or Ms Webb, who are expected to do well when preferences are distributed, which is not likely to happen until after the 10-day period for postal votes ends on May 14.

Nelson hopeful, Nic Street. Picture: NEWS CORP

Mr Street, who was hoping to make a return to parliament as a Liberal said he received the amount of first preferences he expected but he said he agreed he was unlikely to gain the preferences he needed to win.

“There’s probably too many preferences on the left-hand side of the ticket,” he said.

But if he misses out this time around, Mr Street said he had not given up on a return to parliament in the future.

“I would never say never to running again, that’s for sure,” he said.

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Opposition Leader Rebecca White said the Liberals would be disappointed with their party’s vote in Nelson.

“It’s traditionally been quite a conservative seat and held for a number of years by a conservative [independent],” Ms White said.

She said there was a swing towards Labor of about 12 per cent in Pembroke and a downturn in the Liberal vote in Montgomery.

“I think what we can take from the results in the Southern part of Tasmania is that there’s a really strong swing towards Labor and that does bode very well for the federal election … Clark’s well and truly in play.”

Ms Siejka said the Pembroke result was “fantastic”.

“I really appreciate every person’s vote and support that they’ve given me,” she said.

Vica Bayley. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

Likely Nelson frontrunners Vica Bayley and Meg Webb face a nervous wait, with the Tasmanian Electoral Commission saying it would most likely wait until the postal vote deadline of May 14 before distributing preferences.

Mr Bayley said he was “humbled and excited” by the result to date.

Ms Webb said: “I’m feeling excited by that and I’m very grateful … My campaign was really grassroots and small scale and really resonated out there with voters.”

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