A closely contested by-election for a seat on Liverpool City Council’s South Ward has ended in a victory for the Australian Labor Party, after Liberal candidate Azam Dabbagh conceded defeat earlier than formally expected despite thousands of outstanding votes still left to count.
The by-election was triggered last month following the resignation of sitting Labor councillor Betty Green, forcing voters back to the polls on Saturday to elect her replacement. Eleven candidates total stood for the vacant seat: eight independent contenders, one representative from the Community Voice of Australia, and one candidate each from the state’s major Labor and Liberal parties.
By Saturday evening, election officials from the New South Wales Electoral Commission had counted nearly 49,000 ballots: more than 44,000 in-person votes cast on election day, alongside roughly 4,800 returned postal votes. The partial count put Labor’s candidate Zeli Munjiza ahead of Dabbagh by a margin of more than 6,000 votes, giving her 37.2% of the counted first-preference votes compared to Dabbagh’s 20.7%.
Shortly after the partial results were released, Dabbagh took to his public Facebook page Saturday night to confirm he had contacted Munjiza to formally concede the race. “I’ve called Zeli and I’ve congratulated her. I’ve conceded so congratulations Zeli,” he wrote in the post. “It was an awesome experience and it was lovely meeting you and your family. It was a pretty short experience – it’s two weeks to organise all this so thanks to all the supporters. Liverpool, I just want to say thank you for all your support.”
While the official final result will not be confirmed until counting wraps up next week, the projected outcome delivers a major political blow to Liverpool’s Liberal mayor Ned Mannoun, who openly endorsed Dabbagh’s candidacy. Currently, the Liberal Party holds five of the 11 total seats on the council, while Labor holds four and the remaining two are held by independents. Munjiza’s win will bring Labor’s seat count up to five, tightening the already competitive split of power on the local governing body.
Responding to the concession, Munjiza shared her own victory post on social media, noting that both Dabbagh and Mannoun had reached out to congratulate her campaign. “It’s a win that belongs to all of us,” she wrote. “Now the real work begins! I’m excited to join my Liverpool Labor colleagues on Council where we will work together every day for you.”