Malcolm Turnbull poised to ‘scrape over the line’ in tightly contested Australian election
Opposition leader claims prime minister will have little authority and another election will be held within the year
Australia’s conservative Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will likely “scrape over the line” after tight weekend elections, his Labour opponent Bill Shorten said on Friday.
As the vote count continued, both Turnbull’s ruling Liberal/National coalition and Labour were short the 76 seats needed to claim a majority in the 150-seat House of Representatives.
“It’s likely in coming days that the Liberals will scrape over the line,” Shorten told his Labour colleagues at a meeting in Canberra.
But he said with the count so close, the prime minister had little authority as he predicted that Australians would be back at the polls “within the year”.
Turnbull has not yet claimed victory but the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s respected election analyst Antony Green said on Friday he expected the 61-year-old millionaire would be “returned as prime minister”.
The latest ABC projections give the government 73 seats and Labour 66, with independents and minor parties winning five and six seats still in the balance nearly a week after Saturday’s polls.