By Goya Dmytryshchak
Labor’s Melissa Horne has been elected to the seat of Williamstown.
With more than 40 per cent of first preference votes counted in tonight’s state election, Ms Horne was on 10,380 votes (53.25 per cent), followed by the Greens’ Sam Long on 3220 (16.52 per cent), Liberal Pallavee Joshi on 3087 (15.84 per cent), Independent Peter Hemphill on 1827 (9.37 per cent), Animal Justice Party’s Virginia Saint-James on 522 (2.68 per cent) and Independent Lisa Bentley on 457 (2.34 per cent).
The two candidate preferred vote saw Ms Horne on 4805 (77.21 per cent) and Mr Joshi on 1418 (22.79 per cent).
The electorate takes in Newport, Seddon, Spotswood, Williamstown, Williamstown North, South Kingsville, Kingsville, Yarraville and parts of Altona, Altona North and Brooklyn.
Ms Horne replaces Wade Noonan, who retired from politics after 11 years.
Her career has taken her from the ALP’s national office to her most recent role as stakeholder relations director with the Level Crossing Removal Authority.
She and partner Alex Lovelock moved from Canberra to Yarraville in 2002, before buying in Seddon 15 years ago. They have two boys, Sacha, 10, and Phoenix, 13.
Going into the election, the seat was held by Labor with a 16.5 per cent margin.
The ABC predicted a 7.6 per cent swing to Labor.
