Bradfield on a knife's edge: Less than 500 votes between Liberal and Independent candidates

The race for the North Shore electorate of Bradfield was predicted to be a tight race between new Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian and Independent Nicolette Boele.

In 2022, Boele had managed to cut then incumbent Liberal MP Paul Fletcher’s margin from 16.6 percent to 4.2 percent.

This election saw the seat of North Sydney abolished, and boundaries in surrounding electorates - including Bradfield - redrawn. The new boundary gave the Liberals a reduced notional margin of 2.5 percent.

Fletcher retired at this election, with Kapterian winning preselection. 

There are nearly 127,000 eligible voters in Bradfield. As of Tuesday approximately 91 percent of the votes in Bradfield had been counted. Boele currently sits ahead by 416 votes. The counting continues, and neither candidate has claimed victory, or conceded defeat.

As of 9:49am on Tuesday, there was only one centre in Bradfield that had not finished counting its ballots: a pre-poll voting centre voting for electronically assisted voting. This means that the final votes for this electorate are those submitted by early voters, along with a small number of provisional votes and declaration pre-poll votes.

Of the 23,218 postal vote envelopes issued by the AEC, 11,144 have been processed, leaving 12,074 to be counted. 

Postal votes typically swing towards conservative candidates. 

If votes are very tight a recount can be requested by candidates or political parties, or the AEC can make the decision independently. 

In a statement released on Sunday 4 May, Boele said: “The count in Bradfield is extremely close and we expect it will be several days until the AEC has a final result.”

This story has been updated to correct inaccuracies and reflect current voting numbers