With more than half of the 53,529 votes in the Cootamundra by-election counted at 9pm on Saturday night the National Party looks like holding the seat with a comfortable majority.
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Despite being tipped to make a close contest of the seat the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party trail the National Party by a significant margin on first preferences.
The National Party candidate Steph Cooke also holds a handy lead on a two party preferred basis from Country Labor Party candidate Charlie Sheahan.
At 9pm with nearly 25,000 election day votes and 9000 pre-poll votes counted Steph Cooke has received 15,350 first preference votes.
Country Labor’s Charlie Sheahan had received 7655 first preference votes and Shooters candidate Matt Stadtmiller 8153 votes.
On a two candidate preferred count Ms Cooke had received 58.8 per cent of the vote compared to Country Labor candidate Charlie Sheahan’s 41.1 per cent.
