Independent candidate Alex Dyson shocked ballot counters in the electorate of Wannon this election, challenging a seat held by Liberal since the 1950s.
Alex Dyson, an Independent Candidate for the seat of Wannon (the same Alex Dyson who used to wake you up every morning with Matt Okine on triple j) has come bloody close to knocking Liberal MP Dan Tehan off the seat he has held for more than 10 years.
The Victorian seat of Wannon has been held by the Liberal party since the 1950s and wasn’t showing any signs of slipping, until Dyso came along and had a red hot crack.
The Matt and Alex -All Day Breakfast podcast host received the highest ever non-major party vote in the electorate of Wannon, in a seat that has had a Liberal leader for the past 67 years.
Tehan still won the seat with a 60.26 per cent swing, while Dyson slipped just behind with 39.74 per cent, but the ballots were still being counted until Monday, so you don’t need a Mystery Machine to know it was a tight count.
“The amount of car beeps and shakas I’ve copped walking around Warrnambool today shows the impact we made goes so much deeper than just the numbers,” Dyson wrote on Instagram. “And that really warms my heart.”
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The former triple j presenter did manage to nudge ahead of Labor’s candidate, racking up 651 more votes than Gilbert Wilson.
Knowing how involved in the music and arts industry Dyson is, Independents like him could make a vast difference to the political landscape of Australia, so this election’s ‘Greenslide’ and ‘Independence Day’ could leave a huge mark on the future of Australian politics.
