Richard Riordan to run for Victorian Liberal leadership

From an election night nail-biter to leadership fighter, Richard Riordan has endured a rollercoaster ride in recent days.

In British politics, it’s called a Portillo moment - when a frontbencher loses their safe seat in a sudden electoral shock.

ABC election analyst Antony Green declared Polwarth as a Labor gain during Saturday night’s election telecast, a Liberal stronghold for more than a century.

It sent shockwaves through the Coalition on a night Daniel Andrews secured a resounding third term for Labor.

But Liberal MP Richard Riordan said there was a counting glitch on the night, making rumours of his political death greatly exaggerated.

“There’s two pre-poll stations in Polwarth and the results weren’t calculated for at least one of them,” the Liberal MP said.

“Nothing against Antony Green, he was just going on the numbers he had at the time. Plenty of people were trying to write me off but I knew the numbers were going okay and that we’d keep a hold on the seat.”

Liberal MP Richard Riordan Picture: David Geraghty

In the two party preferred count, Mr Riordan sits on 52.6 per cent to Labor candidate Hutch Hussein on 47.4 per cent.

The ABC reported “there was some form of data entry error with pre-poll voting on election night that initially showed Polwarth as a Labor gain. Once corrected the Liberal Party retained Polwarth.”

Now with the race for Polwarth done and dusted, Mr Riordan has declared he is running for the Victorian Liberal Party leadership.

He is the only regional MP to throw their hat in the ring with fellow contenders John Pesutto, Ryan Smith and Brad Battin all representing Melbourne constituencies.

“I’m running for the leadership because we need as a party to represent both urban and regional Victoria better,” Mr Riordan said.

“With Polwarth covering Torquay and Colac, I’m uniquely placed to cover both those voting demographics. We’ve got four years to rebuild the Liberal Party and the work starts now.”

Outgoing opposition leader Matthew Guy has ruled out running for the top job again, with a leadership ballot set to be held later this week or early next week.

The timing of the ballot will be influenced by the success or failure of Mr Pesutto in winning a seat in parliament.

The former shadow attorney general is in a tight race for the Hawthorn constituency against independent candidate Melissa Lowe.