Labor yet to officially appeal seat

The Victorian Labor Party is yet to formally appeal the result of the Victorian Electoral Commission vote count in the electorate of Ripon.

The electoral commission announced last month that incumbent Liberal Louise Staley had retained the seat by 15 votes, edging out Labor challenger Sarah De Santis after weeks of vote counting.

However, following the announcement, Labor assistant state secretary Kosmos Samaras said the party would take court action to challenge the result.

“We will be lodging an appeal with the court of disputed returns,” he said.

“The Labor party holds concerns that a formal recount was not performed.

“A recount should involve a full re-examination of all ballot papers and should follow the same process as the original count.”

Despite confirming it would challenge the result in December, electoral commission spokeswoman Marie Guerin said Labor was yet to formally do so.

“There’s been no update on that so far,” she said.

“They have until January 24 to lodge an application with the court of disputed returns, so if they want to do it, it will have to be before then.”