Australia PM set to form majority govt
SYDNEY: Prime Minister Scott Morrison looked set to form a majority government as vote counting from Australia’s weekend election allayed fears that his conservative coalition may have to rule in the minority following its shock victory.
The coalition was returned to power in a stunning result on Saturday night, after opinion polls and odds-makers had tipped the opposition Labour Party to win.
The outcome ranks as Australia’s biggest election upset since 1993, when Labour Prime Minister Paul Keating was returned to power.
With 76 seats in the House of Representatives needed for majority rule, figures from the Australian Electoral Commission on Monday showed 84% of the votes had been counted, with the coalition on target to win 77 seats – an increase of four after going into the election as a minority government.
The Labour Party was set to claim 68 seats, with independents and minor parties taking six.
Winning at least 77 seats would also allow Morrison’s coalition to appoint the house speaker from its own ranks, rather from among independent or minor party lawmakers.
As Morrison began finalising his new Cabinet yesterday, the stock market welcomed the election result as Australia’s benchmark S&P ASX 200 index climbed 1.7% on the day – reaching its highest level since 2007, just before the global financial crisis.
After being elected in 2016 with 76 seats, the power base of Morrison’s coalition was diminished through a series of by-elections late in its three-year term.
One such defeat was triggered by the ousting last August of then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in an internal party vote.
That move, which ended in Morrison becoming prime minister, caused widespread disgust among an Australian electorate sorely disillusioned by seeing another one of its leaders replaced without them having a say.
Morrison had become Australia’s sixth prime minister in only eight years.
Four such changes had been brought about by lawmakers voting to dump their party’s leader, two each from the coalition and the centre-left Labour Party.
Morrison’s predecessor, Turnbull, had himself become prime minister in 2015 through an internal party coup that dumped Tony Abbott as leader of the Liberal Party.
Analysts had predicted that the coalition would pay dearly for that latest leadership switch, with Morrison expected to exit after one of the shortest terms as prime minister in Australian history.
Most late surveys showed Labour leader Bill Shorten as having a small but clear lead over Morrison as preferred prime minister, 51% to 49%.