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Heading into the 2022 the seat had been held by the Liberal party and their MP Steve Irons since 2007 but was vulnerable with a margin of just 2.7 per cent and Mr Irons retiring.
Ms Mascarenhas not only won the seat but put it into “safe” territory. Thanks to a redistribution in 2024, she saw her margin increase notionally to 9.4 per cent.
The seat lost its outer suburban suburbs east of the Perth Airport as well as its part of the City of Gosnells in the south but gained the suburbs of Wilson, Ferndale and Lynwood south of the Canning River.
The former engineer is now looking to win her second term in government and was seen as the favourite as the campaign wore on and the Coalition’s bid continued to stutter.
Looking to cause an upset against the incumbent is grain farming businessman Mic Fels.
Until he was pre-selected to contest the seat of Swan, Mr Fels split his time evenly between his home in the area and his farm in Esperance.
Ms Mascarenhas spent election night with her supporters at a Victoria Park bowls club to watch the results come in.
Just a five minutes away at the East Victoria Park RSL Liberal supporters gathered with Mr Fels to watch the count.
Ms Mascarenhas spoke to The West at Manning Primary School and said she would never say she was confident but was feeling positive.
“What I felt is lots of community support, people saying thank you so much for your work, random people wanting to do selfies which is very weird,” she said.
“It’s felt really, really positive, which I feel really humbled.”
Mr Fels just after midday said he was not feeling nervous.
“Coming from the industry that I come from, agriculture and manufacturing, I’m used to the pressure of a high intensity operation,” he said.
“For me, I don’t really suffer nerves at a time like this, I’m just focusing on the work, tomorrow might be a different story, but today it’s just all about the work.”
