NSW Labor leader Michael Daley has stepped down from the top job shortly after the Coalition secured a majority government in NSW by winning a 47th seath in the 93-seat lower house.
In a statement released on Monday afternoon, Mr Daley said he would be standing aside as NSW opposition leader until the federal election is concluded but vowed to recontest the leadership.
On Saturday night, as he announced that he had conceded defeat to NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Mr Daley said he intended to remain leader of the NSW Labor party.
Deputy leader Penny Sharpe will take the role of interim leader until a leadership ballot can take place.
“This is the right and proper thing to do. It is in keeping with the spirit of the State Labor Party’s Caucus rules requiring a rank and file election of the leader," Mr Daley said.
“I will be contesting the leadership when nominations are called for that position.”
The Coalition was returned to power on Saturday for a third-straight term but it wasn't immediately clear if it had won enough seats to govern in its own right.
That question was answered on Monday when Nationals candidate Dugald Saunders was declared the winner in Dubbo by ABC election analyst Antony Green, following an extremely close count.
Dubbo had previously been held by the retiring former Nationals leader Troy Grant.
When Ms Berejiklian claimed victory on Saturday night, the Coalition had secured 46 seats - 34 for the Liberals and 12 for the Nationals - with just over 50 per cent of votes counted, one short of the number needed to form a majority government.
Green also called Lismore as a Labor gain on Monday afternoon with former federal MP Janelle Saffin taking the seat from the Nationals.
That's another blow to the junior coalition partner which also lost the western NSW seats of Barwon and Murray to the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party and failed to win back Ballina on the north coast from the Greens.
There's just one seat still in doubt, according to Green, with Liberals candidate Wendy Lindsay narrowly ahead of Labor's Cameron Murphy in East Hills in Sydney's southwest, the government's most marginal seat.
