Australians chose Saturday between
giving their first female prime minister her own election mandate and
returning to a conservative government after just three years. With
more than 75 percent of the votes counted, the results were too close
to call.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she
will remain the caretaker leader and hoped to form the next
government.
"Obviously this is too close to
call. There are many seats where the result is undecided and where it
will take a number of days of counting to determine the result,"
she said.
She acknowledged her opponent,
conservative Liberal Party leader Tony Abbott, was "a formidable
advocate for his side of politics."
A record number of votes cast for
independents and Australian Greens party candidates could decide the
outcome, with the possibility growing that the mainstream parties
will need to strike a deal with fringe groups to form a government.
Such a coalition would be the first in almost 70 years.
Analyst Norman Abjorensen, an
Australian National University political scientist, said the most
likely outcome was an unstable minority government led by Abbott and
supported by independents.
The results were the closest since
1961, when a Liberal government retained power with a single seat.
Gillard, a cheerfully charismatic and
sharp-witted 48-year-old former lawyer, came to power in a June 24
internal coup in her center-left Labor party during the first term of
her predecessor, and almost immediately called elections to confirm
her mandate.
Abbott, a married 52-year-old former
Roman Catholic seminarian with three daughters, barely gained the
endorsement eight months ago of his Liberal Party, which has led
Australia for most of the last 60 years.
Australians have not dumped a
first-term government since 1931 when a Labor administration paid the
ultimate price for the Great Depression. However, this year's
elections are colored by Gillard's surprise seizure of the helm of
her party from former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd after a series of
poor opinion polls.
Gillard, a Welsh-born immigrant who has
a common-law hairdresser spouse, had acknowledged before polls closed
that Labor could lose its entire eight-seat majority in the 150-seat
House of Representatives. Labor won 83 seats in the last elections in
2007.
Issues vary across the large and
diverse country, but asylum seekers, health care and climate change
are hot topics nationwide. Another issue brought to the forefront
Saturday was the presence of the Australian military in Afghanistan,
where two soldiers were killed the day before. The government and
opposition both support Australia's military commitment to
Afghanistan, where 20 Australian troops have now died.
Gillard and Abbott both sent their
condolences to the families and praised the sacrifice of the
soldiers.
The decision by Labor power-brokers to
support Gillard - widely regarded as a better communicator than Rudd
- cost the party the traditional incumbent's advantage.
One of those power-brokers, Paul Howse,
said the decision was correct despite the loss of Labor votes
Saturday.
"I think the parliamentary party
made the right decision," Howse told Australian Broadcasting
Corp. television. "Labor would have in fact done worse under a
different leadership."
Abbott, whose socially conservative
views alienate many women voters but whose supporters say he can
better empathize with Australian families, is his party's third
choice as leader since Prime Minister John Howard led it to defeat in
2007. Abbott beat his predecessor by a single vote last December in a
party ballot.
Abbott has long been seen as a
gaffe-prone fitness enthusiast who is often lampooned in the media
over the many images of him clad in Lycra cycling and swimming wear.
---
Associated Press writers Kristen
Gelineau in Sydney and Tanalee Smith in Adelaide, Australia,
contributed to this report.
