THE Nationals are poised to wrest back the seat of Mildura but will remain in opposition after Labor was returned to power with a majority government on Saturday.
With almost 80 per cent of total votes counted on Sunday, National Party candidate Jade Benham held 51.31 per cent of the two candidate preferred vote ahead of independent sitting member Ali Cupper on 48.69 per cent.
Ms Cupper, who would be the first Member for Mildura to last just one term in office since Labor’s Alan Lind in 1952-55 if Sunday’s voting trend continued, polled the most first-preference votes, however strong preferences to Ms Benham were expected to get her past the post.
As forecast, Robinvale-based Ms Benham polled strongly in the southern reaches of the electorate and was leading in all but eight of the 35 polling booths in the electorate, which now stretches as far south as Donald and Charlton, both of which heavily favoured The Nationals’ candidate.
Ms Cupper was on track to win most of the Mildura polling centres on first preferences, as well as her former and current home towns of Merbein and Nichols Point, respectively. But The Nationals clearly scored big with preferences including those of Liberal Party candidate Paul Matheson, who reeled in almost 20 per cent of the first-preference vote.
Labor Party candidate Stella Zigouras had 6 per cent of first preference votes, followed by Mildura councillor Glenn Milne with 4.58 per cent and fellow independent Sonia Brymer with 2.96 per cent.
In her final pitch to voters ahead of Saturday’s election, Ms Cupper spruiked the potential of a hung parliament and independent members holding the balance of power, as Russell Savage and two other independents did following the 1999 election.
However, the Daniel Andrews-led Labor Party was on track to win at least 49 seats, above the required 45-seat majority, with the Coalition securing 24 seats and the Greens at least four.
Nationals federal leader David Littleproud congratulated Ms Benham on her impending victory, with the party regaining the seat it last held by Peter Crisp from 2006 to 2018.
Mr Littleproud said The Nationals had bucked the trend of the Coalition with four successful state candidates.
“The Victorian election outcome is a hugely successful result for The Nationals,” Mr Littleproud said.
“It is the result of the commonsense approach The Nationals took to the election.
“The result is also due to the fact our candidates are heavily involved in their local communities and worked incredibly hard, with grassroots campaigns.”
Mr Littleproud said the success of The Nationals was the untold story of the election.
“I look forward to working with our new Victorian MPs to achieve real outcomes and practical solutions for Victoria.”
He said Ms Benham and the other successful Nationals candidates would make “wonderful” members of parliament.
The election loss would be especially cold comfort for Ms Cupper after she finished second on first-preference votes to Mr Crisp at the 2018 election, only to win the seat by a 0.68 per cent margin.
The Nationals will now hold both state and federal Mallee seats following Member for Mallee Anne Webster’s convincing win in this year’s federal election.
Voting in the state election will resume on Monday with between 4000 and 5000 postal and votes cast in other electoral divisions still to be counted.
On Sunday Ms Benham was leading the postal votes already counted on a two candidate-preferred basis, 923 to Ms Cupper’s 774.
