Counting will resume in the New South Wales south coast seat of Kiama today, which could see the incumbent returned despite indications he would again be suspended from parliament over indecent and sexual assault charges.
The current MP, Liberal turned independent Gareth Ward, is currently trailing Labor's Katelin McInerney by 752 votes.
The margin narrowed late on Monday after pre-poll votes from the Kiama Early Voting Centre favoured Mr Ward, with almost a third of the votes still to be counted.
Mr Ward was suspended from parliament last March after police alleged he indecently assaulted a 17-year-old boy in 2013 and sexually assaulted a 27-year-old man in 2015.
The 41-year-old has strenuously denied the allegations and is due to appear in court today, where he is expected to formally enter pleas to five charges.
Incoming Labor Premier Chris Minns has confirmed that should Mr Ward be re-elected, he would support any motion to again suspend him from parliament until his legal matter is resolved.
Mr Ward, who has held the seat since he won it off Labor in 2011, is currently leading the primary vote with 38.5 per cent.
It is well short of the 53.6 per cent he tallied at the 2019 election when he contested as a Liberal, but ahead of Labor's primary vote of 35.8 per cent.
The Liberal party has so far garnered 11.3 per cent of the primary vote for Melanie Gibbons, Mr Ward's former staffer and ousted former Holsworthy MP.
The move to parachute Ms Gibbons in as the candidate has angered senior Liberals who remained loyal to Mr Ward, amid fears it would split the conservative vote.
Both leading candidates have indicated they expect the result to be close.
"It's too close to call, and we probably won't know for a few days or weeks," Ms McInerney said in a statement on Saturday night.
"But what we can see is that the community is wants change."
On Sunday, Mr Ward told the ABC, "The people in Kiama have spoken — we now need to work out what they said."
"With thousands of pre-polls and postals yet to counted, Kiama is anyone's bet," he said.
