The LNP’s reign in the Callide electorate is likely to continue, with former Taroom Shire councillor, Colin Boyce set to take over from Jeff Seeney as the parliamentary representative for the central Queensland seat.
Mr Boyce was unwilling to claim victory on Monday morning, saying it would depend on preferences, but said his scrutineers were telling him the standings from the weekend count were unlikely to change.
As of Sunday afternoon, Mr Boyce had received 31.2 per cent of the vote.
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation candidate, Sharon Lohse, was second in the race, with 25.9pc, and the ALP’s Darren Blackwood had 22.9pc.
Katter’s Australian Party representative, Robbie Radel, had polled 13.4pc of the primary vote.
Mr Boyce said voters he spoke to on Saturday had been clearly confused by compulsory preferential voting, and the ECQ website shows a 3.4pc informal vote, double the 2015 figure of 1.6pc.
Mr Boyce acknowledged this would likely have had the same effect on candidates across the board.
On the 25pc vote for One Nation’s Sharon Lohse, Mr Boyce said it was “plainly obvious that the people who voted for minor parties had delivered a Labor government”.
“That’s precisely what they didn’t want,” he said.
Katter’s Australian Party had the ALP listed before the LNP on its how to vote cards in Callide, while One Nation’s voting cards listed the LNP in fourth place, ahead of the ALP and the Greens.
Although the Queensland Country Life found a lack of knowledge of candidates in the Chinchilla area prior to the election, a booth analysis shows strong support for Mr Boyce from former Warrego voters.
At the Brigalow booth, the split was 54.4pc for the LNP and 18.8pc for ONP, while at Jimbour it was 46.3pc/24.7pc, and at Warra the numbers were 57.5pc/14.1pc.
In Chinchilla itself, 35.8pc voted for the LNP and 22.4pc for ONP. In Miles it was evenly balanced – the vote was 34.5pc LNP to 31.7pc ONP.