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April 1, 2015
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Issue 105
Gosford and The Entrance results too close to call
Party volunteers handing out ‘how to vote’ flyers at Point Clare Public School on Election Day
iberal candidate for the state seat of Gosford Mr Chris Holstein, who is the current sitting member, could relinquish the seat to Labor’s Kathy Smith with less than 1% difference between the two in the Two Candidate Preferred vote at the time Coast Community News went to press on Tuesday, March 31.
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Smith was sitting on 50.45% (15,136) of total formal votes while Holstein was only 0.9% behind on 49.55% (14,864). While the initial count is complete for all 34 booths in the electorate on polling day, the count continues for prepoll venues and declaration votes. Preliminary figures for declaration votes, however, see Holstein in front with 964 to Smith’s 908. First preference votes saw Holstein in front by 4.91% (16,512) with 42.97% to Smith’s 38.06% (14,628).
Greens candidate Kate da Costa was voted third with 8.99% (3,454) followed by Independent Jake Cassar with 5.76% (2,212), Christian Democratic Party candidate Andrew Church with 2.31% (887) and No Land Tax candidate Matthew Maroney on 1.92% (738). Seats will be declared on Wednesday, April 8. Both candidates were contacted for comment, however, did not respond by the time Coast Community News went to press. Website, 31 Mar 2015 NSW Electoral Commission
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ust over 1% separates the two preferred candidates for the Seat of The Entrance with Labor’s David Mehan sitting on 50.65% and Liberal’s Michael Sharpe on 49.35% at the time Coast Community News went to press.
Two candidate preferred iVotes, however, saw Sharpe ahead, but only by 11 votes with 984 to Mehan’s 973. The count is still continuing for pre-poll venues and declaration votes. Sharpe was ahead with the most first preference votes with 44.28% (19,151) followed by Mehan with 42.08% (18,197). Greens candidate Scott Rickard received 8.96% (3,874) of the vote, followed by Christian Democratic Party candidate Hadden Ervin with 2.66% (1,152) and No Land Tax candidate Sonia Lopreiato with 2.02% (872). Mehan said he was
reasonably confident about the direction the count was heading in. “We’re feeling pretty good but unfortunately they’re still counting and there’s still some absent votes and postal votes to count,” Mehan said. “We’ve been ahead during the entire count but it’s not a huge margin. “I think the party ran a pretty good campaign; one of the good aspects was all our volunteers were local. “It’s funny in The Entrance because the early swing must have been something to do with which booths were counted. “My campaign manager
was telling me there was a big swing in my direction to start with but we couldn’t get ahead of ourselves. “We celebrated at the Greens at The Entrance and I went in and some of the bowlers recognised me and wanted Labor T-shirts. “When we left they were still drinking and they all had their T shirts on and they were dancing in front of the club band. “It was nice to see a little bit of good humour like that,” Mehan said. Sharpe said he remained hopeful, but acknowledged it was going to be a few more days before the final count was in. “I’m proud of the
campaign we ran and extremely proud of the volunteers and very proud to have been working with Mike Baird. “I’m really pleased to see the commitment to infrastructure here on the Central Coast. “It is very close and keeps moving around and I’m just watching the numbers; I’m hopeful,’ Sharpe said. Seats will be declared on Wednesday, April 8.
Office: 120c Erina Street, Gosford Phone: 4325 7369 Fax: 4321 0940 Mail: PO Box 1056, Gosford 2250 E-mail: editorial@centralcoastnews.net Website: www.centralcoastnews.net
Website, 31 Mar 2015 NSW Electoral Commission Kaitlin Watts, 31 Mar 2015 Interviewees: David Mehan and Michael Sharpe