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Sophie Mirabella feels heat from Cathy McGowan in Indi Sophie Mirabella feels heat from Cathy McGowan in Indi
(35 minutes later)
The independent candidate Cathy McGowan is moving within striking distance of Sophie Mirabella in the normally safe Coalition seat of Indi. The independent candidate Cathy McGowan is perilously close to unseating rightwinger Sophie Mirabella in Indi, with more than half of the vote counted in the rural Victorian seat.
With nearly half of the votes counted, Mirabella has 43.6% of the vote, down 7.6% on 2010. McGowan has captured 32.9% of the vote. It’s understood that around 90% of Labor and Greens preferences are going to McGowan, placing her within 900 votes of Mirabella, who served as the Coalition’s shadow science minister in the last parliament.
Although that seems a large gap, the McGowan camp believes she will pip Mirabella if the incumbent's vote dips to 42%. McGowan has won 33% of the primary vote, with Mirabella on 43.2%, down 7.7% on 2010.
Labor and the Greens are preferencing McGowan first. The gap in primary vote is being bridged due to the decision by Labor and the Greens to preference McGowan first. However, the Labor vote has collapsed by around 17% in Indi, which is traditionally a staunchly conservative seat.
"We are getting very strong support from the large booths in Wangaratta and Wodonga," a McGowan spokesman told Guardian Australia. "Pre-polling has yet to be counted and we expect to be strong in that too. It will be very close." McGowan’s campaign said that the independent had polled strongly in regional urban areas such as Wodonga and Wangaratta. However, postal votes are expected to favour Mirabella.
Mirabella has locked media representatives out of her election night function in the electorate.
A spokesman for McGowan told Guardian Australia that the feeling among volunteers was “jubilant".
“People are ecstatic over the outcome, whether we win or lose,” he said. “Sophie’s primary vote has been completely slashed. This afternoon I would’ve said we couldn’t do it; it has been a tense day and the mood among volunteers was pretty flat.
“But we are now very excited about the outcome. I think that we can do it, yes.”
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