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Greens win historic Freo vote

Alex Bainbridge & Kamala Emanuel, Perth

16 May 2009

Greens candidate Adele Carles is set to win a historic victory at the May 16 by-election – the first time the Greens have won a lower house seat in Western Australia. Carles polled 44% of primary votes and 54% of two-party preferred votes at the close of counting on election night.

This is the first time that the Greens have outpolled Labor on the primary votes in a state or federal election

ABC election analyst Antony Green said: “This is a much more impressive victory [than the one previous lower house Green win at the NSW Cunningham by-election of 2002]” as Labor’s vote did not increase even though the Liberals didn’t run.

Greens Senator Bob Brown told ABC Online the victory “is a real breakthrough for West Australian politics.”

Socialist Alliance candidate Sam Wainwright welcomed the Greens’ victory as a win for progressive politics: “We look forward to deepening the collaboration between Socialist Alliance and Greens that was displayed in this election campaign.”

Wainwright, who polled 2.3%, also hailed the step forward in left unity during the campaign, with Socialist Party and Communist Party of Australia members supporting Socialist Alliance on polling booths.