The day after the federal election the Liberal candidate for Eden-Monaro remained positive about winning the electorate, despite polling behind her Labor opposition.
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"I'm still feeling it's very possible to win because pre-polling counting hasn't started yet," Fiona Kotvojs said on Sunday morning.
"Pre-polling is always difficult, but tends to favour the Liberals slightly.
"We had really good feedback during pre-polling, so we'll just have to wait and see."
By 4.30pm on Monday, according to the Australian Electoral Commission, with over 80 per cent of the votes counted Dr Kotvojs held 49.04 per cent of the votes on a two-party preferred basis, behind Labor's Mike Kelly on 50.96 per cent.
But there had been a swing of 1.97 per cent against Dr Kelly and towards her.
"I think people recognised a Labor government was going to cause problems for small business," she said.
She also said Labor's proposed changes to franking credits were of concern to voters.
Nationally, the Liberal National Coalition's win at the election was something she expected, she said.
"The alternative would not have been a good alternative for Australia," Dr Kotvojs said.
"For me that result is far more critical than any result in the Eden-Monaro."
The reason she expected the Coalition's win was because when she was talking to people on the campaign trail the feedback she received did not reflect what was being stated in the polls that predicted a Labor government.
While Dr Kotvojs said the introduction of the Nationals' Sophie Wade as a candidate in her electorate was great as it gave the public more choice, she did not think the party had had a major impact on voters overall.
"They haven't really polled particularly well across the election, I thought they'd probably poll better," she said.
Until the final result of the election was announced, Dr Kotvojs said she would return home and dealing with the cattle on her farm.
Regardless of the final outcome, she plans to celebrate with those who volunteered with her and said she was happy with how her campaign was run.
"I think it was run well. There's things you'd always do differently if you had your time over, but anyone who doesn't learn from experience and how things can improve - that's a problem," she said.
Albert McKnight
Journalist at Bega District News.
Journalist at Bega District News.
