NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she's "extremely pleased" with the result of two rural by-elections despite a massive swing away from her government in seats once considered safe.
The Nationals hung on to Cootamundra and Murray in Saturday's by-elections but suffered an overall 20 per cent swing towards rivals the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party and Country Labor.
The results leave the Nationals clinging to slim margins in both electorates less than 18 months out from the 2019 state election.
"If I can confess, the result is a bit better than I expected," Ms Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney on Monday.
"I am extremely pleased with the result. The National Party has held on to both seats and it is an opportunity for us to regain the confidence of rural-regional NSW."
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Nationals leader John Barilaro claimed victory for the party on Sunday but acknowledged it had been a hard-fought campaign.
The Shooters candidate in Murray, Helen Dalton, on Monday congratulated the Nationals but insisted she wasn't giving up.
"My goal was to offer a strong alternative to the National Party that has grown lazy and failed to properly represent rural communities and in both the Murray and Cootamundra by-elections we have done just that," she said in a statement.
"They threw everything they could at me in this by-election, and if they think that I'm going to just leave quietly, they have another thing coming."
Cootamundra's Shooters party candidate, Matthew Stadtmiller, claimed Saturday's by-election was just a dress rehearsal.
"The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party will maintain a presence here in the Cootamundra electorate," he said.
"This by-election was a dress rehearsal for the 2019 state election. One in four people here has agreed with me that our electorate deserves better."
Labor stormed to victory in the third by-election in Blacktown with local mayor Stephen Bali registering more than 70 per cent of the vote in the western Sydney seat.
The NSW Electoral Commission was data entering all ballot papers on Monday with the process expected to take another day at least, according to a commission spokesman.
The NSWEC will wait until all postal votes are received on Wednesday before confirming the final result on Thursday afternoon.
