Bradfield on a knife's edge: Less than 1000 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. Fletcher retired at this election, with Kapterian winning preselection. 

This election also 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.

As of Monday the counting continues, and no candidate has claimed victory, or conceded defeat.

There are nearly 127,000 eligible voters in Bradfield. As of Monday 100 percent of the votes in Bradfield had been counted, but not all preferences had been distributed. Boele currently sits ahead by 503 votes.

As of 12:25pm on Monday, there was only one centre in Bradfield that had not finished counting its two-candidate preferred votes: 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 12,180 postal vote envelopes received by the AEC, 10,131 have been processed, leaving 2,049 to be counted. 

In the past, 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.”