The Greens are refusing to concede defeat in the Melbourne state byelection until all the votes are counted, despite Labor declaring victory.
With about 1200 votes still to be tallied, the ALP was ahead by 754 in a seat it has held for a century. The Greens were favoured to win.
Labor's Jennifer Kanis appears to have edged out the Greens' Cathy Oke, with 51.38 per cent of the two party preferred vote to the Greens' 48.62 per cent.
Victorian Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews said the result was better than anticipated, even though Labor's primary vote slid to 33 per cent, behind the Greens' 36 per cent. "We always said this would be a tough fight and ... the primary vote that we've been able to achieve is significantly higher than many thought it would actually be."
About 1200 postal votes are yet to be counted, together with a small number of declaration votes from people who could not be found on the electoral roll. "The Victorian Electoral Commission said last night that they prefer accuracy over speed and so do we," federal Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt said. "The only thing we definitively know now is that the Greens' vote's gone up, the Labor vote's gone down. The only way they'll get over the line is a result of preference deals."
