Victoria, Australia State election 2026 (Parliament of Victoria) — Live Results & Map

Victoria votes on 28 November 2026

Victoria elects the 61st Parliament of Victoria on Saturday 28 November 2026, filling all 88 seats in the Legislative Assembly and all 40 in the Legislative Council. The date is fixed by law: Victorian state elections fall on the last Saturday in November every four years. Forty-five Assembly seats are needed for a majority. The Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) administers the vote, and voting is compulsory for enrolled electors.

Labor is seeking a fourth consecutive four-year term, having governed for all but one term since 1999. It goes into the election under its third premier of the parliament, against an opposition leader who has been in post for a year, with a third force polling seriously for the first time.

How Victoria elects its parliament

The Legislative Assembly's 88 members are elected in single-member districts by full preferential voting: a valid ballot must number every box in order of preference, and candidates are excluded from the bottom up until one has a majority. That is the chamber that decides who governs.

The Legislative Council's 40 members are elected from eight regions of five members each by the single transferable vote, which sets a quota of one-sixth of the vote plus one — about 16.7% — for election after preferences are distributed. Enrolment requires Australian citizenship, an age of 18 or over, and a month's residence in Victoria.

The upper-house reform that ends group voting tickets

The most consequential change since the last election is not a boundary but a ballot paper. Until now Victoria was the last jurisdiction in Australia, state or federal, to retain group voting tickets for its upper house. Under that system a voter marking above the line could choose only one party, and their preferences were then distributed automatically according to an order the party had lodged with the VEC in advance.

The effect was that upper-house results stopped tracking the votes actually cast. Preference brokers — Glenn Druery became the best known — organised ideologically unrelated micro-parties into mutual preference deals, and candidates were elected on primary votes below 1%. Attempts at reform were rejected by then-premier Daniel Andrews, who characterised those pressing for change as motivated by wanting more of their own people elected. Western Australia abolished group voting tickets before its 2025 election, leaving Victoria alone.

Parliament has now passed legislation replacing the system ahead of this election with single transferable voting under optional preferential rules above and below the line, bringing Victoria into line with the Australian Senate and the other states. It means the 2026 Legislative Council result should reflect how people voted in a way the 2022 one did not — and it removes a mechanism several sitting crossbenchers relied on.

Two new leaders and a three-way contest

Labor has changed premier twice in this parliament without an election. Daniel Andrews resigned in September 2023 and was succeeded unopposed by his deputy Jacinta Allan, the second woman to hold the office after Joan Kirner. Allan in turn withdrew from a leadership contest and resigned in July 2026 once her deputy Ben Carroll indicated he would challenge; Carroll was elected unopposed and became the 50th premier of Victoria on 28 July 2026, holding the seat of Niddrie.

The Liberals have changed leader three times. Matthew Guy resigned after the 2022 defeat and John Pesutto beat Brad Battin by a single vote in the party-room ballot that followed. Pesutto lost the leadership in a spill on 27 December 2024, after a Federal Court judgment found he had defamed Liberal MP Moira Deeming and ordered him to pay $300,000 in damages. Battin's own leadership lasted eleven months: he was defeated in a further spill on 18 November 2025 by Jess Wilson, the member for Kew, who leads the Coalition into this election. It needs a net gain of 17 seats to govern.

Ellen Sandell has led the Victorian Greens since April 2024. The development that makes this election unlike its predecessors is One Nation: several recent Victorian polls have described a three-way split of the primary vote between Labor, the Coalition and One Nation, with some putting One Nation on the highest primary of the three. ElectioMap publishes no forecasts and nothing on this page is a projection — but the presence of a third party polling at that level is what makes both the Assembly's preference flows and the reformed Council genuinely hard to read in advance.

The starting position: 2022

Turnout was 88.03% — high by international standards because voting is compulsory, and slightly up on 2018. Labor won 15 of the 40 Legislative Council seats. The election for the district of Narracan was deferred after a candidate's death and held as a supplementary election on 28 January 2023.

The chamber has shifted since. Labor sits on 54 of its 56 seats: Will Fowles and Darren Cheeseman have been on the crossbench as Independent Labor MPs since August 2023 and April 2024. The Liberals gained Prahran from the Greens at a by-election on 8 February 2025, taking the Coalition to 29 and the Greens to 3. There have been five by-elections since 2022 — Warrandyte, Mulgrave, Werribee, Prahran and Nepean in May 2026 — and only Prahran changed hands.

What appears here on the night

This page will carry the official VEC result as it is published: primary votes to two decimal places, the two-party-preferred count where the VEC publishes it, seats in the new Legislative Assembly and turnout, each captioned with how much of the count the figure rests on. Australian counts have a particular shape worth knowing: the primary count on the night is followed by the distribution of preferences over subsequent days, and close single-member seats are routinely not resolved for a week or more. Legislative Council results, under the new system, take longer still. ElectioMap will not name a winner in any seat, or a governing party, before the count settles it, and publishes no exit polls or projections.

Frequently asked questions

When is the 2026 Victorian state election?

Saturday 28 November 2026. Victorian state elections are fixed by law to the last Saturday in November every four years. All 88 Legislative Assembly seats and all 40 Legislative Council seats are contested, and 45 Assembly seats are needed for a majority.

How does the voting system work?

The Legislative Assembly uses full preferential voting in single-member districts — every box must be numbered — and that chamber decides who governs. The Legislative Council uses the single transferable vote in eight regions of five members each, giving a quota of about 16.7% after preferences. Voting is compulsory for enrolled electors.

What changed in the upper house before this election?

Group voting tickets have been abolished. Victoria was the last Australian jurisdiction to keep them: a voter marking above the line could choose only one party, whose lodged preference order was then applied automatically. Preference brokers used that to elect candidates on primary votes below 1%. Parliament has replaced it with single transferable voting under optional preferential rules above and below the line, in line with the Senate and the other states.

Who are the leaders?

Ben Carroll has been Labor leader and premier since 28 July 2026, after Jacinta Allan withdrew from a leadership contest and resigned; Allan had succeeded Daniel Andrews unopposed in September 2023. Jess Wilson, the member for Kew, has led the Liberals and the opposition since 18 November 2025, when she defeated Brad Battin in a party-room spill. Ellen Sandell has led the Greens since April 2024.

What happened at the 2022 election?

Labor won 36.66% of the primary vote and 56 of 88 Assembly seats, the Liberal/National Coalition 34.48% and 28 seats, and the Greens 11.50% and 4. Turnout was 88.03%. Labor took 15 of the 40 Legislative Council seats. The Narracan district election was deferred and held as a supplementary election on 28 January 2023.

How has the parliament changed since 2022?

Labor sits on 54 seats: Will Fowles and Darren Cheeseman have been Independent Labor MPs on the crossbench since August 2023 and April 2024. The Liberals gained Prahran from the Greens at a by-election on 8 February 2025, putting the Coalition on 29 and the Greens on 3. Five by-elections have been held — Warrandyte, Mulgrave, Werribee, Prahran and Nepean — and only Prahran changed hands.

Why is this election unusually hard to read?

Recent Victorian polling has described a three-way split of the primary vote between Labor, the Coalition and One Nation, with some surveys putting One Nation on the highest primary of the three. In a preferential system a third party at that level makes both Assembly preference flows and the reformed Legislative Council difficult to anticipate. ElectioMap publishes no forecasts; this page carries counted votes only.

When will results be available?

The primary count begins when polls close and gives a broad picture on the night, but preference distributions run over the following days and close single-member seats are routinely unresolved for a week or more. Legislative Council results under the new system take longer still. This page shows official VEC figures as they are published, each captioned with the share of the count behind it.

Compiled and reviewed from official results by ElectioMap. See our data methodology.