NSW election 2023: Polls are CLOSED! Perrottet and Minns wait with
Voting has now closed and the count is underway to determine the next Prime Minister of New South Wales.
Millions of residents flocked across the state to cast their ballots, competing with both rain and shine at different times throughout the day.
But there are nine fringe seats in particular that will be hotly contested and could help win elections for either party.
Both Dominic Perrottet and Chris Minns are now in their respective camps, patiently waiting for the results to start coming in.
Labor’s Minns remains the favorite as of 6pm, but the Coalition is confident that Perrottet has run a strong enough campaign to keep his job.
Pundits believe the key to the election lies in Sydney’s west and south-west, with several fringe seats open to fall in either direction.
Labor are the favorites to win the New South Wales elections, but they will not be able to form a government without the Greens or the Independents, according to bets and expert predictions.
New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet casts his ballot along with his wife Helen at Beecroft Public School in North West Sydney on Election Day.
The regions experienced particularly harsh lockdown restrictions that could hamper Perrottet’s efforts, but most of them have been in the hands of the Liberal Party for at least eight years.
East Hills and Heathcote in the south-west and south Sydney are held by the Liberals within minutes, but are now likely to be stolen by Labour.
In Heathcote, Lee Evans MP has a $5 chance of re-election, compared to $1.15 for Labor.
And in the East Hills, a recent area redistricting cut the Liberal margin from 0.5 percent to 0.1 percent, and Labor has a $1.25 chance of winning it.
Former Liberal deputy leader Stuart Ayres has a 0.6 percent margin in Penrith, western Sydney, but Labor has a $1.30 chance of winning it.
Parramatta and Riverstone are held by the Liberal Party with margins of 6.5 and 6.2 percent. Labor is the favorite to win both seats.
Holsworthy is a Liberal by a six per cent margin, but pundits still predict a close race in the south-west seat of Sydney, while the Nationals have a margin of just 0.5 per cent in Upper Hunter. Coalition remains the favorite at odds of $1.55 compared to Labour’s $2.30.
NSW Labor leader Chris Minns is seen outside Panania Public School with local candidate Kylie Wilkinson (left) on election day.
And near Lepington is a brand new seat, expected to vote Labour.
Golbourn has a Liberal margin of 3.1 percent and the party is favored to retain this marginal seat in southern NSW, but the odds are $1.65 compared to $2.15 for Labour. .
The prime minister was accompanied by his wife Helen to the Beecroft Public School polling booth at its Epping headquarters, northwest of Sydney, on Saturday morning to vote.
Minns joined volunteers in handing out flyers at Panania Public School in the inner southwestern suburbs as she prepared to cast her ballot for her Kogarah seat.
You’ll be eager for the results to start rolling in. Your seat currently has just a 0.1 per cent margin after a recent redistribution saw its holdings trimmed.
Labor has dominated the electorate for 70 years and Minns is confident that today will be no different.
“As I understand it, I am the only candidate running for the Kogarah seat who actually lives in the Kogarah electorate,” he said.
If the betting odds are correct, Dominic Perrottet would be the first Liberal PM to lose an election since John Fahey in 1995 (pictured with his wife Helen and three of their seven children)
“So I’m going to let my neighbours, my friends and the people I grew up with in the St George region make the verdict.”
Minns would only be the fourth state Labor leader to win over the Opposition since World War II, ending 12 years in the political wilderness for the ALP.
Earlier on Saturday, former Prime Minister Scott Morrison was seen handing out leaflets at polling booths in Sutherland Shire, while current Prime Minister Anthony Albanese clashed with Balmain.
Online gambling group Sportsbet predicts Labor will win the Liberal Party’s East Hills, Parramatta, Penrith and Riverstone Sydney seats, in addition to Heathcote’s theoretically Labor constituency.
That would leave Labor with 42 seats, five short of the magic number of 47 needed for a majority in the 93-member lower house, as the Coalition won 41 seats.
Minns would also be the first state Labor leader since 1995 to win over the opposition when Labor was in power at the federal level (pictured with Labor Premier Anthony Albanese)
This would make three Green MPs the kingmakers, along with former gay marriage champion Alex Greenwich, regional independents Greg Piper and Joe McGirr, and former Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party members Helen Dalton, Phil Donato and Roy Butler.
But the NSW Electoral Commission says more than 1.5 million residents voted early across the state, with 127,653 postal ballots also being returned.
If Labor prevailed, Minns would join William McKell in 1941, Neville Wran in 1976 and Bob Carr in 1995 as the only NSW Labor leaders to win over the opposition since World War II.
Minns would also be the first state Labor leader since 1995 to win over the opposition when Labor was in power at the federal level.
This would make Perrottet the first Liberal PM to lose an election since the late John Fahey, leaving him the only living former Liberal PM to have been defeated.
A different premier has led each NSW election since 2007, with Carr in 2003 being the last state leader to contest back-to-back elections.