Australia govt loses crucial by-election
SYDNEY: Australia’s embattled conservative coalition was yesterday dealt a spectacular defeat in a crucial by-election two months after it turfed out its latest prime minister, sending it in into minority government.
The polls in the Sydney seat of Wentworth were triggered after former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull of the Liberal Party was ousted in the party coup in August — the sixth change of national leaders in the last decade.
The result snuffs out the Liberal-National coalition’s oneseat majority and sends the country into yet an- other period of political instability ahead of national elections that have to be called by mid-May.
The Australian Electoral Commission said with almost 40 percent of the vote counted, independent candidate Kerryn Phelps was leading 54.34 per cent, compared with 45.66 per cent for the Liberals’ Dave Sharma under Australia’s system of preferential voting.
“I think we can say that Phelps will win the Wentworth by-election and this has been a pretty bad result for the Liberal Party,” analyst Antony Green of national broadcaster ABC said.
It is the biggest-ever swing in a by-election against a sitting government.
At the heart of voter discontent in the traditional Liberal seat was widespread frustration about the leadership merry-go-round and constant infighting in Canberra.
“What we have done is tapped into a sentiment in the Australian people, to talk about the issues that are important to them, not the issues about survival for a particular political party,” Phelps said during her victory speech.
“It was said if we won the seat of Wentworth, it would make history, and, my friends, we have made history today.”