|
by Matt Walsh
CANBERRA, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Australians will have to wait until at least Sunday to find out which party has won the nation's federal election, after it was revealed the race was too close to call on Saturday night.
After pre-election polls pointed to a slim victory for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's Liberal National Party coalition, a 3.2 percent swing to the Labor opposition has put a majority Liberal government in doubt, with pre-poll and postal votes expected to decide the election.
Despite the clouds of uncertainty hanging over the result on Saturday night, Turnbull told supporters his team was confident the coalition could clinch the marginal seats to secure a clear victory.
Requiring at least 76 seats out of 150 to hold a majority, the Turnbull-led coalition had 72 seats, according to respected Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) election analyst Antony Green, while the Australian Labor Party, led by Bill Shorten, had 66 seats.
Buoyed by information that key marginal seats would fall the coalition's way once postal and pre-poll votes were taken into account, Turnbull told supporters in Sydney his party would be able to remain in government despite the likelihood that final results won't be known "until Tuesday".
"I am confident that we will be able to form a majority government. We are the only party that has the ability to do that," Turnbull said.
Shaking off suggestions Australia would be left with a hung parliament - in which neither major party holds enough seats to form a majority, thus having to broker deals with smaller parties and independents to gain a majority - Turnbull turned his attention to the "thuggery and intimidation" of the Shorten campaign.
He praised coalition voters for not being swayed by the union-backed Labor tactics, and said his party's positive policies were better received than the Labor "scare campaign".
"The values that we have and the policies that we brought meet the challenges of our times," Turnbull said.
"We live in a time of rapid economic change and economic opportunities. Those times are now."
"I want to thank the millions of Australians who have placed their trust in us. We will deliver those policies because they are the right ones for our time, otherwise we will fall off the back of the pack."
Labor is ultimately still unlikely to be victorious, but Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said when the eight week campaign begun, his party had little hope in winning, and the Australian public's response to his campaign spoke volumes about the lack of voter faith in coalition policy.
Speaking to a raucous crowd at his election function, Shorten said the Labor Party was "back" after many had written his party off in the lead-up to the election.
"We will not know the outcome of this election tonight. Indeed we may not know for some days to come but there is one thing for sure, the Labor Party is back," the leader of the Opposition said about his once-fractured party.
Shorten said Australians had rejected the Prime Minister's economic plan, and had instead showed support for Labor's policies which included the protection of publicly funded health-care, better education and a fight against climate change.
He said the Prime Minister's promise of a "stable" government had failed.
"Whatever happens next week, Mr Turnbull will never be able to claim that the people of Australia have adopted his ideological agenda," Shorten said.
By 1:30 a.m. local time on Sunday, 76 percent of all votes had been counted.
Related:
Major parties confident as minor parties pose threat in Australian election
CANBERRA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The leaders of Australia's two largest political parties both remain confident that they will win the Federal Election as polls opened on Saturday.
Incumbent Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull cast his vote at a local primary school in his seat of Wentworth on the southern shore of Sydney Harbor while Labor Party leader Bill Shorten continued to campaign in Western Sydney.Full story
Polls open in Aust'n Federal election
CANBERRA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Polls in Australia's Federal election have opened with voters to cast their votes in what is forecasted to be a tight contest on Saturday.
Australian voters will choose between the incumbent center-right Liberal-National Party coalition led by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, and Bill Shorten's center-left Labor Party.Full story
