Slow count sparks calls for inquiry
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Updated
The Electoral Commission will start counting preferences today. (ABC)
Former Labor MP, John Halden, is calling for a public inquiry into the way the West Australian Electoral Commission (WAEC) has run the election.
Mr Halden, who was also a state secretary for the ALP, says there is no excuse for how slowly the votes are being counted or the mistakes that have occurred.
He says the number of postal votes counted in some seats have gone up and down in a day.
He says in one electorate a minor party was credited with having 799 votes, but had only 79 and the error was not corrected for some time.
Mr Halden says the WAEC is well funded and should have been fully prepared even if the election was called early.
"For it not to be prepared and to be continuing to make fundamental mistakes, that it did on election day and it continues to do through the count process, is abominable," he said.
"They only have to get this right once every four years and they've got it wrong."
"The count is slow, it is inaccurate, mistakes are being made all the time.
"What we really have here is an electoral system that is funded under first world standards but operating as if it's a third world electoral system."
Tight count
With only primary votes counted in the election so far, the results remain very close in several seats.
The Liberals have pulled ahead in Wanneroo by 875 votes.
But, Labor has widened the gap in Albany by more than 1,200 votes.
It remains very close in Riverton, Morley, Forrestfield and Collie-Preston.
The final winners will not be known until preferences are distributed, with counting for that beginning today.
