Nicolette Boele braces for legal showdown after historic 26-vote federal election victory

An independent who clinched the most closely fought contest of the federal election has vowed to fight a challenge to her seat.

After a month of vote tallying and an automatic recount, Nicolette Boele was declared the MP for the north Sydney seat of Bradfield, seizing victory over Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian by just 26 votes.

But more than two months after constituents took to the polls, Ms Kapterian revealed she would take the decision to the umpire.

In response, the independent confirmed she will defend her victory, though she will need some help from her community.

“Everything we’ve worked for is on the line,” Ms Boele said in a statement on Tuesday.

“The Liberal Party has a legal team and enormous resources. I have community.

“But we can’t rely on volunteers in the High Court, we need good lawyers, and that is expensive.”

If Ms Boele wins and the Liberals are asked to cover her legal costs, she has said she will offer a refund for every donor.

More than 118,000 ballots were cast in the seat of Bradfield at the May election.

Ms Kapterian led the original count by eight votes, but the automatic recount found Ms Boele was the final winner.

Though the result was confirmed in early June, the Liberal candidate did not announce her challenge until Monday evening.

Ms Kapterian said she was requesting a targeted examination of a small number of ballots, but stressed her continued confidence in the integrity of Australia’s electoral system.

“Pursuing this final step will provide collective confidence that the final result reflects the true wishes of the voters in Bradfield and remove any remaining doubt created by the two conflicting counts,” she said in a statement.

Ms Boele maintained that the people of Bradfield had spoken and said she had complete confidence in the process that had led to the result.