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Australia faces the prospect of a hung parliament, the second in six years, after neither of the country’s major parties won enough seats to form a government in Saturday’s general election.
With 77 percent of the votes counted yesterday morning, the ruling Conservative coalition led by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was neck-and-neck with the centre-left Labor Party, led by opposition leader Bill Shorten.
Each was projected to had secured about 67 seats, nine short of the majority needed in the 150-seat lower house. Eleven seats were still too close to call. The Greens had won one, while four seats were taken by independent candidates.
A final outcome is not expected for days, as millions of postal and absentee votes have not yet been processed, with experts saying that these traditionally favour the incumbent.
Andrew Thomas, reporting from Sydney, said that given how close the election had been, it might be a while before a clear winner was declared. “It will take some time because postal votes need to be physically gathered in one place, in each electorate,” he said.
“The electorate commission says it will not do any of the counting on Sunday, nor on Monday – only on Tuesday they will start the whole process, and if some of those seats are very close, disputed, then it could take days before those seats are resolved.”
A hung parliament remained a possibility, Attorney General George Brandis said.
Projections showed the most Turnbull could hope for was 74 seats, which would force him to cut a deal with independents and minor parties to stay in power. — Al Jazeera
Londile Moyo
Online Reporter