2000 CST
Labor looks to have lost Hindmarsh to the Liberals in South Australia with a current swing put at 8.5 per cent, but all the other seats across South Australia are showing swings below that.
More than 40 per cent of the vote in Hindmarsh has now been counted.
Steve Georganas of the ALP is at the football clubrooms at Thebarton Oval, getting himself a beer, and no doubt set to contemplate life beyond Federal Parliament.
Liberal Matt Williams is set to become the member for Hindmarsh in the new parliament.
1935 CST
With a swing now put beyond 9 per cent, the Adelaide western suburbs electorate of Hindmarsh is expected to be won by Liberal candidate Matt Williams.
Labor’s Steve Georganas held the seat by 6.1 per cent going into the federal election.
Across South Australia, roughly one-third of the vote has been counted for the House of Representatives.
Independent Senator Nick Xenophon is in Adelaide’s East End with supporters, holding a street party.
He is set for another term in the upper house, as are two Labor Senators Penny Wong and Don Farrell and two Liberals Cory Bernardi and Simon Birmingham.
The fight will be for the sixth Senate place, with Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young hoping for a win.
Lexi Metherell @LexiMetherell
Stephen Smith calling loss of 10-20 seats for Labor. Says disaster in Sydney not as bad as feared.
1930 CST
The Adelaide western suburbs electorate of Hindmarsh is set to change hands, with Liberal candidate Matt Williams poised to take the seat from Labor’s Steve Georganas.
The ABC live results site forecasts no other seats are likely to change hands.
Kate Ellis is tipped to hold Adelaide by a small margin.
1915 CST
The ABC live results site is calling the seat of Adelaide as retained for the ALP, where Labor’s Kate Ellis had a margin of 7.5 per cent going into the election.
The current swing to the Liberals is put at 5.5 per cent.
The live site says Kingston in Adelaide’s south will be retained by the ALP, as will Makin and Wakefield in the north.
The seats of Mayo, Barker and Grey will stay in Liberal hands.
Hindmarsh is being called as doubtful for Labor to retain, with a swing against it of 7.7 per cent at this stage. Steve Georganas is fighting a challenge from Liberal Matt Williams.
1900 CST
Antony Green, the ABC election analyst, said the statewide swing against Labor in South Australia was 4.5 per cent, but not enough at this time for any seats to change hands.
More of the count in Adelaide now shows there no longer is a swing against sitting Labor MP Kate Ellis.
Nick Harmsen @nickharmsen
1.3% of the vote counted in and a 5.8% swing to the Libs. Need 7.5 to win
ABC Elections @ABCElections
Kevin Rudd Prime Minister re-elected in Griffith
1830 CST
Counting of votes has started in South Australia.
First votes counted in Hindmarsh, Adelaide, Wakefield, Mayo, Kingston, Barker and Grey are showing swings to the Liberals.
Leigh Sales @leighsales
Antony green is calling it on abc1 for the coalition.
Paul Langtry of the Electoral Commission in SA said Senate votes would not be counted until after the House of Representatives votes.
“On election night we only count the above-the-line vote and that’ll give us an indication where the numbers will go and where the numbers of votes will apply to candidates, but it won’t give us the full picture.
“It’ll take us up to two-and-a-half weeks to count all of the ballot papers, and in fact we do re-checks of what we’ve done on election night as well.”
1800 CST
Eyes are on key seats such as Hindmarsh and Adelaide as South Australian polling booths have closed, and the state’s Senate race also will draw plenty of attention.
The pressure will be on Labor’s Steve Georganas in Hindmarsh, where Liberal challenger Matt Williams needs a swing of more than 6 per cent.
In Adelaide, Labor’s Kate Ellis is facing a challenge from Carmen Garcia for the Liberals, with a margin of 7.5 per cent before the seat changes hands.
Paul Langtry of the Electoral Commission in SA said:
“Counting will commence generally around 6:15-6:30pm. The smaller polling places with the lesser number of votes will finish their counts first so it’s quite common for country votes to come in earlier and bigger polling places like Woodcroft and Belair Primary School and Mt Barker will take a bit longer.
“We’ll see the probably the most, majority of votes come in between 7:30 and 9:00.”
Independent Senator Nick Xenophon hopes to win another Senate term, along with two Labor Senators, Penny Wong and Don Farrell, and two Liberals, Cory Bernardi and Simon Birmingham.
But the battle is expected to be on for high-profile Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young to win another term.
1730 CST
Joe O’Brien @joeobrien24
Stephen Smith starts the ABC coverage saying the Govt will be defeated.
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