The elected Member for Gilmore is Fiona Phillips. In what could have been a noble celebration of the winning candidate the election turned sour and sadly typical of losing candidates officering neither personal, nor public congratulations. To many a pretty piss poor and disappointing response.
It appears instead, as we have seen all to often, a contesting candidate appearing to have slunk off with a barely a whimper.
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) delayed declaring Labor the winner in the NSW electorate of Gilmore after the Andrew Constance, issued a last-minute request for a recount.
Unsurprisingly the AEC knocked back the request.
The AEC was due to formally declare at 2pm on Tuesday that Labor’s Fiona Phillips had won the seat on NSW’s south coast by 373 votes. But Mr Constance said he wanted a recount claiming his scrutineers had "raised concerns in relation to certain aspects of the process, particularly the scrutiny of informal votes”.
The failure to concede brought back memories of the failure of the Liberal candidate in the State bi-election to concede as well, even though her own party leader had made "the call" to congratulate the Labor victor.
Fiona Phillips celebrated he victory today by being in Canberra and enjoying the opportunity to represent her electorate.
Note: Andrew Constance has deleted his electioneering social media pages. Andrew Constance said he will 'detox' from politics if unsuccessful in race for Gilmore. An odd expression suggesting politics is toxic. "Maybe he was suited to be a candidate after all", says everyone who didn't vote for him.
