The Dockers Grand Final Better Not Be Like This - Too Close To Call

As of 8.30 Sunday morning, it is still too soon to finally call the seat of Fremantle.

Will incumbent Labor MLA Simone McGurk hold on in the 2025 State Election or will Community Candidate/Voices4/Teal independent Kate Hulett prevail?

Here’s the Freo vote count as it stood when the WA Electoral Commission counters fell asleep at the wheel late last night.

Oooh. Close, with nearly 60% of the vote counted. Which way are the Libs preferences running? And Felicity Townsend’s too? And the other ones, even the tiny party tots? They could all count. Probably will. Time will tell. But how much time?

First thing this morning we asked regular psephologist on our View from the Round House political podcast, Professor Martin Drum of Notre Dame University, Fremantle, how he is reading the tea leaves. Martin says –

On the figures I can see, Kate is in a stronger position but there are a lot more votes to be counted. So don’t count out Simone just yet. Still too close to call. It may be some days before we know.

Along similar lines, the ABC projection on the above figures states –

Fremantle has been locked in as an in doubt seat pending further vote counting. There will be no reliable preference counts for some time.

Some days, some time? As Lleyton would say, ‘C’mon! Can’t be that hard!’

We also reached out this morning to both the McGurk and Hulett camps for their comment on the current state of play. No responses were received from either by the indicated publication time of 8.30 this morning, so we expect they were either still sleeping after a hard day’s night/ or share Martin’s and the ABC’s assessments/ or only drink coffee and don’t have any tea leaves to consult.

So, will Simone hold on?