Ley returned, and possibly leader

He lost his seat of Dickson to Labor’s Ali France.

As his deputy leader, Ms Ley has been automatically elevated to the top spot until an internal leader election can be held.

The timing of the vote is not yet known, but may not be until after the official declaration of the election.

Ms Ley’s office has provided a statement about the Farrer result, but she is not yet commenting on other matters.

Political editors with many of the major newspapers suggest Ms Ley is one of three main candidates for the Leader of the Opposition role.

The other likely contenders are expected to be shadow treasurer Angus Taylor and shadow minister for immigration and citizenship Dan Tehan.

None have publicly declared a leadership tilt.

The Coalition has lost ground in both the lower and upper house at this election, with Deniliquin-based Nationals Senator Perin Davey looking unlikely to be returned to the Senate.

According to the ABC News election analysts, the Coalition is only likely to gain two of the six Senate seats on offer.

Liberal Andrew Bragg is already elected, and experts suggest the other spot will go to fellow Liberal Jessica Collins.

Labor candidates Tony Sheldon and Tim Ayres are the only other candidates elected to date based on quotas.

The remaining candidates listed as “likely” to be elected are Mehreen Faruqi from The Greens and Emilia Beljic from Labor.

On the Farrer front, there has been an 8.7 per cent swing against Ms Ley in what has long been a Coalition stronghold.

And such was the rise in interest in Independent Michelle Milthorpe, the ABC’s experts stopped calculating the two party preferred basis on the traditional Liberal Nationals Party and Labor.

Mrs Milthorpe outpolled Ms Ley in all Albury-based voting centres on election day, but the re-elected local member was more popular at Albury pre-polls.

Had there been a similar trend in the more rural and regional areas of the electorate, the result may have been different.

Ms Ley has won each of the Southern Riverina district polling places, by a good majority.

The only local polling place where Labor candidate Glen Hyde outpolled Ms Milthorpe, to come in second, was at his home polling place in Tocumwal.

But he is a close third in both Barooga and Jerilderie.

At the time of going to print yesterday, with just over 84 per cent of Farrer votes counted, Ms Ley held just over 43 per cent of the vote (41,897 votes), and Ms Milthorpe 20.5 per cent (19,678).

Mr Hyde has 15 per cent of the vote (14,434), which indicated a swing of about four per cent against his party Labor.

“It was a tough fight in Farrer,” Ms Ley said in a statement.

“I'm very humbled that I have retained the seat of Farrer and I wanted to very much express my thanks, which I have, to the many volunteers across my electorate ... all the way to the South Australian border, who turned out for me and of course for the people who voted for me.

“It was an election where across the country the vote for the Liberal Party declined, and I've lost good colleagues as a result from the federal Parliament, and my seat was not immune from that decline in support.”