Independent Nicolette Boele wins seat of Bradfield after recount   


June 4 2025
ABC News.

Independent Nicolette Boele has won the Sydney electorate of Bradfield, after a full recount in the seat.   

On the latest count, she has a two-candidate-preferred lead of 27 votes but there are a very small number of ballot papers awaiting final adjudication and her margin of victory could shift slightly.


The ultra-tight contest ebbed and flowed for weeks with Liberal Gisele Kapterian and Ms Boele took turns leading the race.

The Liberal Party is considering whether it will challenge the Bradfield result in the Court of Disputed Returns and has 40 days following the return of the writs to petition the court.

The Sydney seat was one of a handful across the country that went down to the wire on election night, before being called days after voting booths closed.


A recount for the federal seat of Bradfield was conducted by the AEC.

On May 12, the ABC's chief election analyst Antony Green called the historically blue-ribbon seat for Ms Kapterian, who at that stage was ahead by about 200 votes, with only 1,000 left to be counted.

However, the margin between the two continued to shrink and Ms Boele emerged as the provisional winner a week later — leading by 40 votes after the unofficial distribution of preferences.

But as the initial count entered its final stretch, Ms Kapterian made a late comeback and pulled ahead by eight votes.


Bradfield is a historically blue-ribbon seat.

On May 29, the AEC confirmed a recount would take place under a policy applied to contests won by fewer than 100 votes.

This was Ms Boele's second attempt at claiming Bradfield, after she narrowly missed out on toppling Coalition frontbencher Paul Fletcher in 2022, when a so-called "teal wave" of Climate 200-backed independents targeted traditional Liberal electorates across the country.

Many in the Liberal Party feared the seat had been left vulnerable after Mr Fletcher announced his retirement from politics ahead of the 2025 election.

Ms Kapterian had been appointed to an assistant role in the communications portfolio by Opposition Leader Sussan Ley.

Bradfield is the final seat to be determined in this election and the result means Labor will have 94 seats in the House of Representatives and the Coalition will hold 43.

There are 13 members of the crossbench.

Such great news , another liberal safe seat lost