6:57 – Just in case there was any doubt, the Liberal Party’s Simon Kennedy has won this by-election.
I will continue to liveblog but I admit I won’t be as diligent as I might be for a more interesting election.
With three booths reporting preference counts, Kennedy is on 73.2%.
6:53 – The AEC is conducting a preference count between Liberal and Greens, but since that count wasn’t conducted in 2022, we can’t do matched swing. Thus we only have the raw figure, not a projected figure. After one booth, Kennedy is on almost 69%.
6:51 – We’ve now got primary votes from four booths, and Simon Kennedy is on 65.7%, a swing of 12.5%.
The Greens are currently coming second with 15.3%, followed by three others all on about 5%.
Remember there is no Labor candidate, and the ALP polled 25% in 2022. So that’s a big chunk of the electorate looking for somewhere else to go. So far, some of them are going to the Greens, and quite a lot to the Liberal Party.
6:00 – Polls have just closed in the southern Sydney seat of Cook for the federal by-election. The by-election was triggered by the resignation of former prime minister Scott Morrison.
The seat is expected to stay in Liberal hands, but we will be watching as results come in tonight.
There was some discussion of turnout being down, with less people voting at pre-poll. But there was a big surge in pre-poll turnout yesterday, putting the by-election closer to normal trends.
Postal and pre-poll numbers for the Cook by-election finish only slightly down on the 2022 election. It seems everyone was waiting for the final day before pre-polling. https://t.co/Z0VeQ6ilIC #auspol pic.twitter.com/MP9p7eQEoz
— Antony Green – elections (@AntonyGreenElec) April 13, 2024
I expect we’ll start getting results in about an hour. If you want something to read until then, check out my guide to the by-election.