A MAN likely to score thousands of votes in Farrer, even though he is not officially a candidate, spent Saturday coaching his women's football team in Sydney.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Christian Kunde, who resigned as the Labor Party candidate after being linked to an extreme Islamic group, will guide the winless Auburn Giants against the Southern Power Wolves.
His name remains on Farrer ballot papers.
“I would expect to get the second-highest primary vote, but I may be wrong,” Mr Kunde said.
He said he had always planned to fly to Sydney to coach his team on election day and he urged those still manning Farrer booths for Labor to “stay positive”.
Liberal incumbent and Health Minister Sussan Ley said she was unsure how the two-party preferred vote would be split if Labor failed to accrue the sizeable chunk of votes it has previously recorded.
At the 2013 poll, Labor netted 23.75 per cent of ballots.
Greens candidate Amanda Cohn does not necessarily expect Labor votes will flow in her direction because of Mr Kunde’s exit.
“I think since Christian’s name is still on the ballot paper we’re going to see the informal votes go up,” Dr Cohn said.
She said her ambition was to exceed the 5.88 per cent peak previously recorded by the Greens in Farrer at the 2010 election.
“We've had a really positive campaign and we’re hoping for our best ever result in Farrer,” Dr Cohn said.
“It will be a win for us if the Greens’ vote goes up and Sussan Ley’s margin goes down.”
Ms Ley has held Farrer since 2001 and her nominal margin has risen from 17.4 per cent to 21.7 per cent since the 2013 election with a redistribution seeing Griffith replacing Broken Hill as the second biggest city.
Four of her rivals, Paul Rossetto (Christian Democratic Party), Ron Pike (Australian Liberty Alliance), Trevor O'Brien (Mature Australia Party) and independent Brian Mills hail from Griffith.
Ms Ley will vote in Griffith before travelling to Deniliquin and Albury on Saturday.
Nationally, Ms Ley was “cautiously optimistic” of a Coalition win and felt a Labor “scare campaign” on Medicare had been combated.
“I think it’s been called out for what it is,” Ms Ley said.
“I note that (Labor leader) Bill Shorten has been asked ‘are the Liberals privatising Medicare?’ and he’s never actually said ‘yes’.”