Albanese to lead Australian Labor party after electoral defeat

Honoured to be elected 21st Leader of @ Australianlabor. Thank you to members of caucus, rank and file members and affiliates for your support,” Albanese tweeted

CANBERRA (DPA), 27 MAY 2019 - Australia’s former deputy prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is set to become the leader of the opposition Labor party after a bruising defeat in the federal parliamentary election earlier this month.

Albanese, 56, will become the new Labor leader as no other candidates emerged to challenge him for the role.

“Honoured to be elected 21st Leader of Australian Labor. Thank you to members of caucus, rank and file members and affiliates for your support,” albanese tweeted. “together we can return our great Party to government in three years time.”

Labor suffered a shock defeat in the May 18 election that saw Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s conservative coalition return to power with a majority government, defying public opinion surveys and exit polls that had predicted victory for the centreleft party.

Bill Shorten, who had led Labor in opposition since 2013, resigned right after conceding defeat.

Albanese, born and raised in Sydney, has been a parliamentarian since 1996. He easily retained his seat of Grayndler, an inner-west Sydney electorate, in the election this month.

Albanese was a cabinet minister in the 2007-2013 Labor government and served briefly as deputy prime minister between June and September 2013.

Later that year, Albanese lost the party leadership to Shorten.

Richard Marles, a lawmaker from the southern state of Victoria, is set to be deputy leader after he was the only person to seek the position.