Labor has accused the Liberal Party of deliberately using the official colours of the Australian Electoral Commission to mislead Chinese-speaking voters in a marginal seat, despite the AEC stating the posters are within the laws.

Key points: Posters in Chisholm in the colours of the AEC instructed people to vote Liberal

Posters in Chisholm in the colours of the AEC instructed people to vote Liberal The AEC said the posters were within the law and no further action would be taken

The AEC said the posters were within the law and no further action would be taken Go to the ABC's live results page

The posters, which were written in Chinese and have appeared at booths in the Melbourne seat of Chisholm, state the "correct" way to vote is to preference the Liberal candidate first.

Both the major parties are running female Chinese-Australian candidates in the seat, after it was vacated by Liberal-turned-independent Julia Banks.

Roughly 20 per cent of the population in the electorate, in Melbourne's eastern suburbs, is of Chinese ancestry.

One poster seen by the ABC at the Burwood East Primary School polling booth was printed in the purple and white colours of the AEC and tied to a fence next to an official AEC voting banner.

The text of the poster, which was authorised by the Liberal Party's Victorian division, appears to be written in the style of an official instruction to voters:

"Correct way to vote. "On the green voting card, put preference 1 next to the Liberal Party. The other boxes can be numbered from smallest to highest."

Australian Labor Party state secretary Kosmos Samaras confirmed to the ABC that the party had lodged a formal complaint with the AEC.

AEC state manager Steve Kennedy has told the ABC that the commission has considered the complaint and found the posters did not breach election laws.

"Whilst the AEC would prefer that parties or lobby groups don't use the colour purple, the AEC doesn't own the colour purple and there is nothing restricting the use of this," he said.

The Liberal Party has declined to comment.

An identical poster was seen in the neighbouring electorate of Deakin.

Alongside it was a rival poster, also in Chinese, saying the "Liberal Party's cut in education funds affects the future of you and your children".

At 10:30pm, with just over 68 per cent of the vote counted, Liberal candidate Gladys Liu was leading with 50.4 per cent of the two-party-preferred vote.

Labor candidate concerned by implied 'authority' of poster

Ms Yang said she was "shocked" by the posters, which she described as "unethical".

Rival posters in Chinese pictured in Deakin. ( ABC News: Jason Fang )

"[The poster was] trying to pretend [it] was coming out from the authority which in some way does have a huge influence to the ethnic community, especially for the first migrants' communities," she said.

"It's very, very low especially when they only do that on [a] certain language only and I see … a very clear purpose, [they] only want to deceive a certain community which is just not right."

Liberal candidate 'didn't even notice' issue with posters

Liberal candidate Gladys Liu told the ABC she "didn't even notice" the posters were in the same colours as AEC materials until somebody pointed it out to her.

"The authorised person is the state director of our Liberal Party's headquarters," Ms Liu said.

Gladys Liu said there was no need for the posters to be removed. ( ABC News )

"I think if there is any problem we should ask the authorised person, that is the state director.

"At the same time, I also find that the AEC has not raised any objection or any question … It has not yet requested to take them down, which proves that AEC also thinks there is no problem with it."