A Teal challenger who was declared down and out by all media organisations has now sensationally leapt ahead of her Liberal rival.
Climate200-backed candidate Nicolette Boele is now 19 votes in front of her Liberal rival Gisele Kapterian in the extremely tight battle for the seat of Bradfield in Sydney‘s north, with 268 votes still to be counted.
‘In Bradfield 181 postal votes added that split 125 Boele (IND) to 56 Kapterian (LIB),’ ABC election analyst Antony Green posted on X.
‘This is a gain on 69 votes and puts Boele 19 votes ahead. According to the AEC at 2:20(pm) there are 268 votes to be dealt with.’
It has been a rollercoaster count with Boele at one stage looking like she had claimed the seat before Kapterian pulled ahead late last week.
On Monday last week, most media organisations called the result for Kapterian, who was replacing retired Liberal member Paul Fletcher.
At that stage, ABC election analyst Antony Green said there were only around 1,000 votes left to be counted and he predicted Kapterian would hold onto her 200-odd lead.
But then the Teal challenger, who made headlines for all the wrong reasons during the campaign when she made a sexualised comment to a hairdresser, narrowed the gap to just 69 votes, before pulling ahead on Monday afternoon.
Climate200-backed candidate Nicolette Boele (pictured) has narrowed the lead of her Liberal rival Gisele Kapterian to 59 votes in the battle for the seat of Bradfield in Sydney ‘s north
It has been a rollercoaster count with Boele at one stage looking like she had claimed the seat before Kapterian (pictured) pulled ahead late last week
Neither Kapterian or Boele has declared victory or conceded defeat.
During the election campaign, Boele was banned from the Envy Room salon across the road from her office after she allegedly told a 19-year-old female staff member who had washed her hair: ‘That was amazing – and I didn’t even have sex with you’, according to 2GB.
A staff member at the salon subsequently told Daily Mail Australia that Boele had been banned ‘indefinitely’.
‘She (the staff member) was in shock and quite upset afterwards,’ the staff member added.
‘We wrote to her (Boele) last week to tell her that we will no longer have her here.’
Boele, who styled herself as the ‘Shadow Representative for the People of Bradfield’, admitted it was a ‘poor attempt at humour and I’ve apologised’.
‘Everyone deserves to feel respected in their workplace and I will do better,’ she said.
it is the second attempt she has made to win the seat of Bradfield.