On Friday afternoon, Nationals' Mr Saunders was announced as the winner for the state seat of Dubbo. Counting was still underway, a week after it started, but Mr Saunders said he was confident he could formally claim an election victory.

"It has been a strange week since election day. My team and I knew it was going to be close and it has panned out that way but we are comfortable now that the vote has gone my way, and for that I am grateful," Mr Saunders said.

In the first count, Mr Saunders had 52.62 per cent of the Two Candidate Preferred votes, or 18,147. Independent Mathew Dickerson had 47.38 per cent, or 16,343.

Mr Saunders also took out 38.17 per cent of the first preference votes.

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Mr Dickerson received 28.7 per cent of the first preferences. He was followed by Country Labor's Stephen Lawrence on 14.45 per cent, Shooter, Fishers and farmers candidate Lara Quealy on 13.29 per cent and Greens' candidate Rod Pryor on 3.37 per cent.

Combined, April Salter from the Conservatives and The Flux Party's Joanne Cotterill received less than two per cent of the first preference votes.

"I'm not at all surprised by how close it was, and I think it shows the quality of the candidates that put their hands up to serve the electorate of Dubbo," Mr Saunders said.

"The task for me now is to repay the faith shown in me by the electorate. I will take a few days off and have some time with my family before the polls are declared next Wednesday and then it will be straight in to work."

The future MP said he would have a lot to learn so his work was going to be a slow burn initially.

"My priorities are to further the relationships I have already established within the Liberals and Nationals government and then go about ticking off the things we committed to delivering in the campaign," Mr Saunders said.

"Obviously at the moment drought is the major priority pretty much all across the state, and the Premier said on Sunday we need to hear the cries of the people struggling because of it, so being an MP for a regional area I am keen to provide that kind of assistance straight away."

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