The latest:

  • Polling booths have closed across the state.
  • Final results could take several days to be revealed.
  • Liberal-Nationals currently hold 52 of 93 seats in the NSW lower house.
  • Labor will need to pick up 13 seats to gain an outright majority. 
  • Both NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and NSW Labor leader Michael Daley have said the election is too close to call.

The final votes have been cast and early numbers are filtering in from across NSW on Saturday in what is predicted to be one of the closest elections in decades.

Current NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is fighting to become the state’s first popularly-elected female premier, while opposition leader Michael Daley is gunning to return Labor to power – just four months after he took over the top job.

With both parties conceding that it is going to be a tight race, there is a possibility that final results will not be revealed for several days.

The final results from the NSW election might not be known for several days.

AAP

Early on there appeared to be a possible swing towards the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party (SFF), with SFF candidate Philip Donato taking an early lead in the once safe Nationals seat of Orange, which he won in the 2016 byelection by just 50 votes.

In Newtown, the smallest electorate in NSW, Greens MP Jenny Leong is expected to hang on to the seat, defeating Indigenous elder Aunty Norma Ingram, who was hoping to become the only Indigenous woman in NSW Parliament.

 

But as the results trickled in, the ABC’s election analyst Anthony Green said it “was one of the slowest counts” he had ever worked on.

At the moment, there’s not a big swing against the government. But to be honest, there just aren’t enough is figures for to say that this is actually a trend,” he said.

On Friday evening, a News Corp Newspoll predicted a slim win for the Coalition, reporting that the Liberal-Nationals were ahead with a 51-49 per cent two-party preferred lead.

This was supported by exit polling conducted by Nine News, which predicted Ms Berejikilian would emerge on top but added that there was a “strong chance” of a minority government.

“It is going to be a tight race but it is up to the people of NSW to decide,” Ms Berejiklian said after casting her vote at Willoughby Public School.

“Is there more we could have done? Of course, there is, but … I know [NSW] will be much better off if they choose to vote Liberals and Nationals today.”

Two shock by-election losses in Orange and Wagga Wagga, in 2016 and 2018 respectively, have left the Coalition with a slim majority on the parliament floor. As a result, a loss of just six seats for the government will see them lose their majority. To win outright, however, Labor would have to pick up an additional 13 seats.

After casting his vote at Chifley Public School, Mr Daley agreed that the race was “neck and neck”.

It is so close that many are predicting a hung parliament, which would force the major parties to form alliances with the independents and minor parties to gain control.

While Gladys Berejiklian tucked in to a classic democracy sausage, Michael Daley instead opted to start the day with a ‘lucky’ pie.

AAP

More than 1.3 million voters opted to vote early in this election, including 82,700 postal votes, the NSW Electoral Commission said.

But more than four million were still predicted to head out on foot, to one of 2200 polling booths around the state, and there was plenty of democracy sausages to go round.

Mr Daley instead opted for a “lucky” plain meat pie and strawberry milk, an election day tradition that stretches back more than 30 years.

“Breakfast of champions. A pie and a strawberry milk on a Saturday morning, you can’t go wrong. Keeps you going the whole day,” he said.

What are the key issues?

In the lead up to the election, both leaders were promising to spend big.

The government’s controversial plans to demolish Sydney’s Allianz Stadium dominated debate, with Labor seizing the issue to question whether it is an appropriate use of public money and using the slogan “schools and hospitals not Sydney stadiums”.

But Ms Berejiklian said NSW “can have it all” and has promised that the new stadium will attract “world-renowned sporting events, high-level corporate sponsorship, a massive injection of tourism dollars, a surrounding local business boom and of course more jobs”.

“As Premier, I will never ask you to choose between having world-class schools, hospitals, transport, roads, stadiums or cultural facilities – because the hard work we’ve done means that today, NSW can have it all,” she said as she officially launched her re-election campaign.

Beyond stadiums; climate, education, health and transport were all major issues for voters.

Both major parties have focused on health and education, making big promises in these areas along with public transport.

What about federal politics?

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Saturday that he expected Ms Berejiklian to “have a great day”, but questions have been raised over whether anger directed towards the Morrison federal government will affect the NSW results.

“I believe there will be a good Liberal win today,” Mr Morrison said.

“Gladys has shown great discipline and strong leadership, which is how she runs the government, which is why she deserves the support of the people of NSW.”

With the federal Coalition just losing its 50th straight Newspoll, Mr Morrison hasn’t been a regular feature of the state campaign and opted not to join the Premier at the polls on Saturday.

In comparison, federal opposition leader Bill Shorten has been more visible in the lead up to the election and made a speech at NSW Labor’s campaign launch.

On ABC News on Saturday evening, NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said Mr Morrison was “incredibly popular in NSW”.

“I understand that there are concerns at a Federal level but if I look at Bill Shorten versus Scott Morrison, in New South Wales, Scott Morrison is a lot more popular than Bill Shorten,” he said.

Ms Berejiklian earlier dismissed suggestions that the federal government’s standing would affect results.

With AAP