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AAP
AAP
Politics
Kat Wong

Major parties barely fend off independent challengers

Labor's David Smith is posed to take Bean after inching ahead of independent Jessie Price. (Lukas Coch/AAP PHOTOS)

The major parties appear to have held on to formerly safe seats by the skin of their teeth, but a handful of other electorates remain too close to call.

Australians handed Labor a sweeping federal election victory, but several former strongholds looked poised to slip from the party's fingers after independent challengers took the results down to the wire, with less than 100 votes separating the frontrunners at times.

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