SYDNEY,
Australia — More than a week after one of the closest and longest
Australian national elections in half a century, Prime Minister Malcolm
Turnbull declared victory on Sunday after the leader of the opposition
Labor Party conceded defeat.
“We
have won the election,” Mr. Turnbull, the leader of the Liberal
Party-led conservative coalition, said at a news conference on Sunday.
The Australian Electoral Commission has forecast
that the coalition could win a combined 76 seats, which would give it
an absolute majority in the 150-seat House of Representatives. Two
independent members of the House have also pledged their support to the
coalition, solidifying its chances of forming a government.
“It
is clear Mr. Turnbull and his coalition will form a government,” Bill
Shorten, the Labor Party leader, said at a news conference on Sunday
afternoon. “I hope they run a good government.”
After
an eight-week election campaign that ended July 2, neither the Labor
Party nor the conservative coalition, which defeated the Labor
government in the last national election in 2013, wanted to concede
defeat amid uncertainty over whether either side would win a critical
number of seats.
The
Labor Party is forecast to take 69 seats in the House. The Greens are
forecast to have won one, other parties, including independents, four.
The electoral commission is expected to give the final results of the
election around July 15.
In
government, the coalition will have to deal with a fractious upper
house, the Senate. The balance of power in the Senate is likely to be
held by a diverse group of left- and right-wing independents and
minority parties that may block legislation passed in the House. As a
result, some political analysts said they expected another national
election to be called by the coalition before its latest three-year term
ends.
“It is vital this Parliament work,” Mr. Turnbull said.
Source: New York Times
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