Voters in the inner-eastern Adelaide seat of Dunstan are heading to the polls today for a by-election triggered by former South Australian premier Steven Marshall’s resignation.
Mr Marshall formally tendered his resignation to state parliament in February, nearly two years after losing the 2022 state election to Labor.
Dunstan is South Australia’s most marginal state electorate, held by the Liberal party on a margin of 0.5 per cent.
The Electoral Commission of South Australia (ECSA) said more than 27,000 electors are enrolled to vote in Saturday’s election, which is being contested by five candidates.
More than 7,000 voters have already completed either a pre-poll or postal vote, according to ECSA data.
The Animal Justice Party and Australian Family Party are also contesting the seat.
The by-election campaign has become increasingly heated in the lead-up to polling day, with both major parties levelling accusations at each other’s candidates.
The Liberal party, citing an email, accused Ms O’Hanlon under parliamentary privilege of breaching lobbying laws by using her position as a parliamentary staffer to secure her husband a meeting with a government minister.
Ms O’Hanlon has denied the allegation.
Labor has accused Ms Finizio of “airbrushing” her LinkedIn profile to exclude her involvement with her family company that went into administration more than two years after she stopped being a director.
They have also accused her of applying for a job with former shadow attorney-general Kyam Maher in 2020 when the Liberal party was in government.
On Friday, Liberal candidate Anna Finizio said the health system and ambulance ramping was one of the top issues voters had raised with her during the campaign.
“We’ll see on Saturday how the people of Dunstan feel and whether they’re going to just vote Labor and let things go as normal or if they actually want to put someone in the parliament that’s going to hold this government to account,” she said.
Labor candidate Cressida O’Hanlon said she was focused on local issues.
“I hope that people think about what’s actually in the best interest of this community of Dunstan having a local MP who is part of the government, who can actually advocate directly to the government,” she said.
Greens candidate Katie McCusker said cost of living, housing affordability and green spaces were the main issues voters raised with her.
“The Greens are in it to win it … people are sick of the kind of politics that is being played out in this election,” she said.
Declaration and postal votes will be counted on Monday, meaning if the count is close, it may take days before there is a clear winner.
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