{Country faces strong possibility of hung parliament after voters fail to hand either of the top parties a majority.}<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
With 77 percent of the votes counted on Sunday 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. <\/p>\n
Each was projected to had secured about 67 seats, nine short of the majority needed in the 150-seat lower house.<\/p>\n
Eleven seats were still too close to call. The Greens had won one, while four seats were taken by independent candidates.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Al Jazeera’s 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. <\/p>\n
“It will take some time because postal votes need to be physically gathered in one place, in each electorate,” he said.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
{{Close race}}<\/p>\n
A hung parliament remained a possibility, Attorney General George Brandis said.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Despite losing a host of coalition MPs, Turnbull, whose coalition won 90 seats in the 2013 election, sounded a confident tone during a speech to supporters early on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n
“Based on the advice I have from the party officials, we can have every confidence that we will form a coalition majority government,” the 61-year-old said, conceding, however, that the race was “very, very close”.<\/p>\n
Labor’s Shorten told supporters that Turnbull’s government had lost a clear mandate to govern. <\/p>\n
“One thing is for sure, the Labor party is back,” he said, but did not claim to have enough votes to form a government.<\/p>\n
Political turmoil<\/p>\n
Australia’s politics has seen years of turmoil characterised by internal political feuds, with the prime minister changing five times since 2010. <\/p>\n
Turnbull came to power last year after ousting Tony Abbott in a Liberal Party coup. <\/p>\n
Shorten took the helm at Labor after playing key roles in two leadership coups: the overthrowing of Kevin Rudd for Julia Gillard in 2010, and the ousting of Gillard for Rudd again in 2013.<\/p>\n
Rudd was soundly defeated by Abbott in 2013, after which Shorten took over the party.<\/p>\n
“Political instability is becoming the norm in Australia,” Al Jazeera’s Thomas said.<\/p>\n
“This country has now has had four prime ministers in just over three years, and if Bill Shorten becomes prime minister as a result of this election he will be its fifth.<\/p>\n
“No prime minister in Australia has held office from one election to the next just three years later in the last decade.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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