Nearly 25 percent of Australians voted for a lower house candidate from outside the two major parties, a sign that mainstream politics is no longer cutting the mustard for many in the country.
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Australia’s current government consists of a coalition of the center-right Liberal Party, led by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, and its minor partner, the National Party of Australia.
Mr Turnbull, a millionaire former banker, took Australia to the polls on Saturday but neither his Liberal/National coalition government or Bill Shorten’s main opposition Labor appeared to have won a majority with most of the ballots counted.
Officially at least, the government remains confident of reaching a majority in the 150-member House of Representatives due to an expectation that thousands of postal votes yet to be counted, will favour conservative candidates, and particularly where there are sitting members seeking re-election. “Quite frankly, I think he should quit”, Shorten told reporters.
Turnbull’s gamble in calling an election, ostensibly to clear the upper house Senate of what he saw as obstructive minor parties, backfired badly with a much bigger swing to the center-left Labor opposition than expected.
Mr Turnbull’s arguably belated move to reassert control in the post-election vacuum delivered by the close result, came as Bill Shorten warned that the Prime Minister may call a snap election as a way of resolving internal instability. “The bloke is not up to the job”.
But, whether as a outcome of Mr Shorten’s relentless attacks or because of an actual internal threat, it is Mr Turnbull who appears wounded and in the gravest danger.
“This guy is like David Cameron of the southern hemisphere”, Mr Shorten said. The major parties need 76 seats to form a majority government in the House of Representatives.
The election on Saturday was meant to put a line under a period of political turmoil which has seen four prime ministers in three years.
Turnbull said on Sunday he remained “quietly confident” of returning his coalition to power for another three-year term but the key independents who have become the powerbrokers after winning a greater share of the vote than anticipated are yet to declare their allegiance for either side.
Of those seats, the now Labor held seat of Chisholm has a significantly close margin of only 66 votes, and the Liberal held seat of Forde has a similarly close margin of 149.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation election analysts reported there are now 10 seats still in doubt, with the incumbent government holding 68, and the opposition Labor Party holding 67, with the Greens party and independents holding give seats.
Nine seats remain in doubt: Capricornia, Cowan, Forde, Herbert, Hindmarsh where Labor leads, Chisholm, Dunkley, Gilmore where the coalition is ahead, and Grey where the Nick Xenophon Team is in front.
Australian Electoral Commission spokesman Evan Ekin-Smyth said the Senate was likely to take a month to resolve.
Mr Cory Bernardi, an outspoken conservative and long-term critic of Mr Turnbull, said the Prime Minister should consider “if he did the Liberal Party a service or a disservice”.
“You don’t get that sort of election result that we’ve just had, I think, and then face a leadership challenge”, he told ABC radio on Tuesday.
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Shorten declined to elaborate on what any Labor deals with the independents might involve, but vowed to work with all lawmakers in a bid to restore order to the fractured parliament.
