Independent Nicolette Boele has been declared the winner of Bradfield by a margin of just 27 votes. Photo: Nicolette Boele Facebook.
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has declared the race for the northern Sydney seat of Bradfield for independent candidate Nicolette Boele.
The declaration is the final seat to be decided from the 3 May federal election.
First preference votes had clearly favoured Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian, who won 38.1 per cent of the vote, an 11.1 per cent lead over independent Nicolette Boele, and nearly 18 per cent over Labor candidate Louise McCallum.
But following the distribution of preferences, just eight votes separated Ms Boele and Ms Kapterian at the end of official counting in May, so the Divisional Returning Officer exercised the powers available under Section 279 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 to conduct a recount from 29 May.
After the recount, Ms Boele held a two-party preferred margin of 26 votes.
Ms Boele is supported by the Climate 200 action group and had previously narrowly lost the seat against former Liberal member Paul Fletcher who did not contest the seat in 2025.
The Liberal Party hasn’t decided whether to challenge the Bradfield result on behalf of Ms Kapterian in the Court of Disputed Returns, but has 40 days to do so following the return of the writs to petition the court.
“During a recount, each individual ballot paper is very closely scrutinised by AEC counting staff with challenges made from candidate-appointed scrutineers for both leading candidates,” the AEC said in a release.
“These challenges were dealt with in accordance with the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 in the presence of scrutineers by the Divisional Returning Officer in the first instance, and further challenges were considered by the Australian Electoral Officer for NSW.
“The entire process was conducted in front of candidate-appointed scrutineers in what is a very transparent and methodical process of re-scrutinising ballot papers.”
Bradfield was one of two seats that saw a recount after the first round of counting, with the Melbourne seat of Goldstein also having a partial recount.
Former member for Goldstein independent Zoe Daniel had initially declared victory on election night on the basis of favourable polling place returns. But Liberal candidate and former member Tim Wilson made a comeback to take the lead and also declare victory as postal votes were counted and was leading by 260 votes when a partial recount of all first preference ballot papers and informal votes was ordered.
That recount was completed on 31 May, and Mr Wilson was declared the winner with a lead of 175 votes on a two-party preferred basis over Ms Daniel.
The AEC said the change in margin came from further determinations made on ballot paper formality as a result of challenges from candidate-appointed scrutineers, and a data entry error on a previous count that was picked up by the recount process.
The declarations of Bradfield and Goldstein mean the final composition of the House of Representatives has Labor with 94 seats, the Coalition with 43 seats, and the crossbenches with 13 seats.
