The AEC is today advising that despite the result of the by-election not being in doubt, the official result for Farrer will likely only be able to be declared by the AEC in the last week of May.
The AEC cannot formally declare a result until specific legislated requirements are met under the Electoral Act. This webpage shows the current results for the Farrer by-election against each of those legislated criteria.
Electoral Commissioner Jeff Pope said the large number of postal votes, and broad spread of first preference votes in the election is a factor in that timeline.
"We've calculated the current figures against the various tests for official poll declarations, and it looks like a full distribution of preferences will have to occur prior to the declaration," Mr Pope said.
"This is not uncommon - it was the case for more than half of all 150 seats in the 2025 federal election and for the Fadden by-election in 2023."
"Under the law we must wait until 22 May for final postal votes to be received and all admitted votes are required to be in our possession prior to doing the full distribution of preferences."
"We're acutely aware that the successful candidate will want to take their seat as soon as they can and once that postal vote deadline has passed, we'll move as quickly as it is possible to do so."
"This is the same process that has always been in place, and we simply can't work faster than the law allows. As always all of our counts throughout this period are open for scrutineers to observe and undertake their important role."
AEC TV video: Farrer official declaration timing
Further information:
- Further information about the formal poll declaration
- Further information about the counting process
- AEC Tally room
- AEC Newsroom
- AEC imagery (AEC Flickr)
