There were no surprises in the election results for our region except for the seat of Bendigo, which is still on a razor’s edge.

Counting was continuing as Country News went to print on Monday morning, with about 80 per cent of votes counted across the nation.

Nicholls

Nicholls has been retained by The Nationals as Sam Birrell enters his second term in parliament.

He has so far polled 45,057 (48 per cent) of the votes — with a 23.7 per cent swing towards him — while his closest competitor was Labor’s Kim Travers on 22,014 votes (23.56 per cent).

Mr Birrell was pleased to return as member for Nicholls for a second term.

“It’s a great thing to serve a term and then be re-elected and put here again,” he said.

Mr Birrell thanked all those who voted for him.

“I’ll never take it for granted. I got in this to do a job and represent people from my community.”

Farrer

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley has retained the seat of Farrer in NSW.

Despite a swing against her of 8.7 per cent, Ms Ley had secured 43.6 per cent of the first preference count by Monday morning.

Independent candidate Michelle Milthorpe achieved 20.48 per cent of the first preference count, while Labor’s Glen Hyde received 15.02 per cent.

In the wake of Liberal leader Peter Dutton losing his own seat on Saturday, Ms Ley is now one of the frontrunners for the top job.

Other possible candidates are Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor and frontbenchers Dan Tehan and Andrew Hastie.

Ms Ley said several seats where preferential counting was continuing would have to be decided before a meeting to decide a new leader could take place.

She said her party was reflecting on the results with humility.

Indi

Independent candidate Helen Haines was re-elected for her third term for Indi.

On Monday morning, Ms Haines was leading Liberal candidate James Trenery by more than 15,000 votes.

Indi has been a safe independent seat since 2013.

Mallee

Mallee has also been retained by The Nationals, with Anne Webster into her third term.

Labor had received 17,953 first preference votes, coming in second behind Ms Webster on 48,167 (50.8 per cent) on Monday morning.

Mallee has been held by The Nationals since 1983.

Bendigo

Bendigo, which includes Elmore and Rochester, had not been decided as of Monday, May 5 at 11am.

Labor’s Lisa Chesters was in the lead on 33,070, ahead of Nationals candidate Andrew Lethlean on 29,836.

At the time of writing, the ABC predicted Labor to win by less than 1000 votes.

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