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Only Fairfax still in doubt from election

The LNP's Ted O'Brien reckons it's only half-time in his knife-edge contest with Clive Palmer for the Queensland seat of Fairfax.

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Source: AAP


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The Queensland seat of Fairfax, where mining magnate Clive Palmer's wafer-thin lead looks certain to trigger a full recount, is the only lower-house seat still in doubt.

The trailing candidates in the Victorian seat of McEwen and the southern Sydney seat of Barton - the only other electorates listed as close by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) - have conceded.

Rob Mitchell has retained McEwen for Labor and Nickolas Varvaris has won Barton for the Liberals.

Mr Palmer's duel with the LNP's Ted O'Brien hardly moved on Tuesday as the AEC continued a full distribution of the preferences of the six other candidates.

So far, this process, which will take several days, has increased Mr Palmer's lead by two votes to 38.

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Assuming the margin remains less than 100 at the end of this count, a full recount will be triggered automatically, which will take several additional days.

For Mr O'Brien it's only half-time in the contest.

In McEwen, Liberal Donna Petrovic, who trails by 348 votes, has conceded.

"It has been a long, challenging and extremely close count since election day, however as the final ballots are tallied I concede that Labor has retained the seat," she said in a statement.

Steve McMahon, who was trying to keep Barton in Labor hands after the retirement of former Attorney-General Robert McClelland, said a combination of three factors had allowed Mr Varvaris - who was 493 ahead on Tuesday - to win narrowly.

Mr McMahon said the factors were the general swing against Labor, the loss of the personal popularity of Mr McClelland after 17 years as the MP, and the ability of independent Michael Nagi to gain more than 3000 mainly Labor voters who then preferenced Mr Varvaris.

"The combination was just too much, but we're within striking distance for next time," Mr McMahon, a former mayor of Hurstville, said.


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