The City of Perth’s Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas looks to join the state parliament as the member for Churchlands after a tense night of vote counting.
Zempilas was expected to have an easy win over Labor’s Christine Tonkin who held the seat with the tight margin on just 1.6 per cent, but as the votes were counted there was several times throughout the evening that it looked like Labor might hold the seat.
The switch of the traditionally Liberal seat at the 2021 election was an unexpected surprise and given Zempilas having a huge voice through his media roles, and the incumbency of the Mayoral role, it was predicted he’d have no problems defeating Tonkin.
““I’m told that I’ve won,” Zempilas said when speaking to reporters just after 10pm.
He will however be joining a Liberal opposition that will still only have a handful of lower house seats.
“It would appear that we’re going to be in single digits at the end of this,” Zempilas said when speaking to The West Australian.
“That is not a result that anybody would have considered to have reached the mark that we’d anticipated.
“It’s very very clear that what we’re doing is not working. You cannot dispute that we have to do things differently. I’m still optimistic that what’s happened at this election is the start.”
Zempilas has not ruled out challenging current leader Libby Mettam for the leadership position. Earlier in the week he said he was focused on winning Churchlands back for the party and would not be drawn on hypothetical questions.
