ACT Electoral Commissioner Phil Green says most of the first preference votes have been counted in the ACT election.

“Around 14,500 postal votes, declaration votes and interstate votes are yet to undergo a preliminary count of first preferences,” Phil said.

“Postal votes will continue to be received up until Friday this week.

“These votes are all enclosed in declaration envelopes that need to be checked against the electoral roll to determine whether the elector is entitled to vote in the election. This is a painstaking process that will continue for the rest of this week.

“Today, Elections ACT staff are beginning the detailed process of electronically scanning and verifying every preference written on every paper ballot cast in the election.

“Every evening from Tuesday this week, Elections ACT intends to post an interim distribution of preferences on its website. These figures will consist of ballot papers counted for whole polling places to ensure they do not skew the results posted. However, users of these results are cautioned that they only represent a sample of preferences, and the final outcome cannot be determined until all of the preferences are counted.

“As postal votes can be received up until Friday 21 October, the final result cannot be determined until all of these votes have been processed and included in the count. This cannot occur until Saturday 22 October at the earliest,” Mr Green said.