Mayo, Lyne voters back to polls today

Mr Briggs, 31, beat a field of Liberals last month for the right to contest the town-and-country seat that mixes blue-ribbon Liberal with younger, left-wing voters. He is likely to be returned, but the impact of the Greens, the Family First candidate Bob Day who sought preselection for the Liberals and resigned in protest, and the independent Murray River campaigner Di Bell will be closely watched.

South Australian independent senator Nick Xenophon, who campaigned for Ms Bell during the Mayo campaign, said yesterday the absence of the ALP from the field reduced the chances of a minor party securing the seat. The presence of a Labor candidate in the 1998 election directed a stream of preferences to Australian Democrats candidate John Schumann who came within 2% of defeating Mr Downer. This time, no Labor candidate was run.

In today's byelection in Lyne, on NSW's mid-north coast, the Nationals are set to lose their former leader Mark Vaile's seat to a high-profile independent.

This will cut their House of Representatives numbers to nine, a major blow after their success in retaining Gippsland in an earlier byelection.

Robert Oakeshott, 38, who held the state seat of Port Macquarie first as a National and then an independent, is expected to be an easy victor in Lyne, where Mr Vaile's margin last year was 8%.

The Nationals are running a former mayor, Rob Drew. Labor, which had a swing against it in Gippsland, is not running in Lyne.