By Alesha Capone
With more than a third of the votes cast in Tarneit counted, Ms Connolly has more than 10,000 of first preference votes (58.7 per cent).
According to the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC), Liberal candidate Glenn Goodfellow has amassed more than 4000 first preference votes (23.3 per cent).
This represents a swing of more than 11 per cent to Labor and a 1.9 swing away from the Liberals, since the last election four years ago.
Tarneit is considered a very safe Labor seat.
On a two-party preferred basis, Ms Connolly has 69.2 per cent of the votes and Mr Goodfellow 30.8 per cent.
Apart from Ms Connolly and Mr Goodfellow, the VEC has Greens candidate Beck Sheffield-Brotherton on 1205 votes (7.8 per cent).
If Ms Connolly does succeed in winning the seat of Tarneit, she will replace Telmo Languiller, who retired.
In November last year, when Star Weekly interviewed Ms Connolly after she announced her candidacy for Tarneit, she committed to would giving the area “a very loud” voice in parliament.
Ms Connolly said that if elected, her priorities for the area would include a focus on crime, infrastructure, community services, job opportunities for young people, access to further education and engaging with youths who drop out of school.
Ms Connolly, who lives in Altona North with her family, said she would consider moving into the Tarneit electorate if she became the area’s MP.
Mr Goodfellow tonight posted a message on his official Facebook page, in which he thanked his supporters for their backing in what has been “a hard year”.
Tarneit includes Laverton North, Williams Landing, Truganina, Tarneit and most of Hoppers Crossing.
