news, federal-election

FARRER MP Sussan Ley has outperformed her Indi counterpart Sophie Mirabella, results from a Border Mail survey show. But both candidates are less popular than their nearest rivals — Gavin Hickey for the ALP in Farrer, and Indi independent Cathy McGowan, who took out more than 65 per cent of the preferred Indi vote. Regardless of the results from the week-long online survey, all candidates stressed they were focused on the one poll that matters: Saturday’s election. Respondents had until Monday afternoon to respond to The Border Mail’s poll, which asked questions ranging from local members’ performances to who they will vote for. Of the 1260 responses, 80.4 per cent were Indi voters and 19.6 per cent were from Farrer (respondents could only answer candidate-specific questions for their electorate). About 25 per cent rated Ms Ley’s performance as “satisfactory” while another 25 per cent rated it as “poor”. But this far outstripped the results from across the Border, where 68.9 per cent (679 respondents) called Mrs Mirabella’s performance “very poor”. A further 17.1 per cent graded her performance as “poor”; 7.6 per cent said it was “excellent”. Ms Ley said such results were “great to get an indicator of how your work is being judged”. Mrs Mirabella said: “The only poll that I am focused on is election day. I am working to earn the trust of voters on Saturday, as I have for the past 12 years”. Though the surveys are a small snapshot of the electorates, if they are indication of the general mood, both candidates are facing competition. In Indi, 67.5 per cent said they would vote for Ms McGowan, followed by Mrs Mirabella on 11 per cent, then Greens’ Jenny O’Connor on 9.7 per cent. Ms McGowan said she was “humbled”: “While I would love to have the results from The Border Mail’s poll replicated this Saturday, all indications are this will be a very close contest.” In Farrer, ALP’s Mr Hickey took 36.7 per cent of the preferred vote, and Ms Ley 30.4 per cent. Mr Hickey said he was pleased to hear the result but said he was still the underdog in the election. “Labor has never won this seat but we’re giving it the best shot we can,” he said.

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