Oz leaders seek minor party support

The country was facing the prospect of a dreaded hung parliament after Saturday’s elections, which failed to deliver an immediate victor. 

With about a quarter of the votes left to be counted, neither Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s conservative Liberal Party-led coalition nor the center-left Labor Party had secured the required 76 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives to form a government.

Turnbull, who is pinning his hopes on mail-in and early ballots that traditionally favor the conservatives, said he remained quietly confident of an eventual victory.

Turnbull’s coalition could indeed still win by a slim margin, though with a reduced majority. But with Labor and the Liberals in a virtual tie, there was a possibility neither would end up with enough seats to form a majority government, resulting in a hung parliament.

That would force the Liberals and Labor to try to strike alliances with independent and minor party lawmakers in a bid to form a minority government. If no alliance can be forged, the government could end up calling yet another election.

In the wake of the chaos, Labor Party leader Bill Shorten called on the prime minister to resign.

“Mr Turnbull clearly doesn’t know what he is doing. Quite frankly, I think he should quit,” Shorten told reporters. “He has taken this nation to an election on the basis of stability. He has delivered instability. ... The bloke is not up to the job.”