With up to 3000 postal, early and absentee votes still to be counted, Bentleigh is too close to call. VEC spokeswoman Sue Lang said counting of 650 postal votes would begin at 4pm today after the ballots had been authenticated. But counting of the remaining 1000 early votes would not take place until tomorrow. Ms Lang said an unknown number of absentee and provision votes was still coming in, taking the number of uncounted votes to several thousand. "It could be as many as 3000," she said.

"It's looking likely now we're not going to have an answer until tomorrow." Caretaker Premier John Brumby was believed to be preparing to concede defeat earlier this afternoon but will hold out until the seat of Bentleigh and possibly others are declared. The Coalition shadow cabinet met at Parliament House this morning and is waiting for Labor to concede defeat so it can declare victory. The Liberal-Nationals have 44 seats in the 88-seat lower house to Labor's 43. They need 45 to form majority government.

Mr Brumby told a news conference the day after the election that it would be "the height of disrespect" to declare a result before a record half-million early votes had been counted. The Labor-held seats of Eltham, Macedon and Ballarat East still hang in the balance and are leaning towards the ALP by fewer than 1000 votes. Ms Lang said counting of early votes began in the seat of Eltham at 2pm today, while rechecking of votes in Macedon was under way. But it was possible counting in Ballarat East would not resume until tomorrow, she said. "Some (votes) haven't arrived, some are still coming in the mail, you have to go through integrity checks," she said.

"It's so important given how close it is to get it absolutely right." Speaking after the meeting at Parliament House, Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said that when Labor chose to concede defeat was a matter for the premier and Victorians would judge him for it. ‘‘The way he approaches it will be the way he is judged. What we are doing is getting on with the job of being ready to govern,’’ he said. ‘‘As I said on Saturday night, we are ready to govern, we want to make sure that we are in a position to do that in the event that we are asked to do so.’’ Mr Baillieu described the shadow cabinet meeting as long, productive and responsible.

The Liberal leader said he and Nationals leader Peter Ryan were excited by the opportunities ahead but were not getting ahead of themselves. Mr Ryan said the sooner the result was declared the better. Mr Baillieu said it wasn’t helpful being in limbo but the counting in the seat of Bentleigh yesterday, which doubled the Liberal’s lead to 423 votes, was ‘‘certainly encouraging’’. He said his mobile phone had ‘‘melted’’ with messages of support. Mr Baillieu described the mood in the shadow cabinet meeting as very positive and confirmed there would be no changes to his front bench.

A Coalition government’s first priority would be providing ‘‘stable, disciplined, responsible government’’ and improving community safety and public transport, he said. ‘‘I would say that everybody, as I have said many times, is relishing the opportunities which lie in front of us but we’re also very sanguine about the work that needs to be done and we know that there’s a lot of hard work in front of us all," he said. "Let’s take it a step at a time but I can assure you, should we be given the call, we will be very professional, focused and very busy.’’ A senior Liberal source said there was frustration at Mr Brumby’s refusal to concede defeat. The source said there was no indication that early votes would depart from the swing against Labor and postal vote counting suggested a 5 per cent swing.

‘‘We’re just sitting tight at the moment. We’re not doing anything until Brumby concedes,’’ the source said. Loading ‘‘We’re just hearing increasing frustration and bewilderment from the media and the community as to why he’s doing this.’’ AAP