Albanese elected Australia’s leader in complex poll result

THERE is still no clear answer as to whether Australia’s new prime minister Anthony Albanese will be able to form a majority government or have to rely on the support of an increased number of independents and minor party candidates who won seats in Saturday’s election.

With counting set to continue for many days as postal votes are tallied, one prospect that emerged was that Mr Albanese may need to be sworn in as acting prime minister to attend tomorrow’s Quad summit in Tokyo with US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Indian Prime Minister Narendra

Modi.

The election delivered a clear rebuke to Australia’s traditional twoparty system, both to Mr Albanese’s Labour and the heavily defeated conservative coalition led by the Liberal party’s outgoing Prime Minister Morrison. The major parties bled votes to fringe parties and independents, including in many seats considered Labor or coalition strongholds.

Needing 76 seats in the lower Parliamentary chamber, the House of Representatives, to govern in its own right, Labour on Sunday afternoon was being called the winner in 71, with 67% of votes counted, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp.