Australians swing against ruling coalition in knife-edge election

Australia was headed for a hung parliament or a minority government with more than half the votes counted in a national poll on Saturday, potentially blocking Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s ability to enact key economic reforms.

Official electoral data for the House of Representatives showed a 3.2 percent swing away from the Liberal-led coalition government as officials clocked off for the evening with almost 10 million votes counted.

The tight vote is a major blow for Turnbull whose gamble on a risky double dissolution of parliament in a bid to oust intransigent independents in the upper house Senate blocking his agenda appears to have backfired.

“Friends, we will not know the outcome of this election tonight, indeed, we may not know it for some days to come,” a jubilant Bill Shorten, leader of the opposition Labor Party, told supporters in Melbourne just before midnight. “But there is one thing for sure – the Labor Party is back.”

Opinion polls heading into Saturday’s vote had showed a potentially tight vote after the landslide victory that brought the coalition to power in 2013; but just how tight still caught many by surprise.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott told Liberal Party followers it was a “difficult night” after he successfully retained his Sydney seat.

On official projections issued as counting was wound up early Sunday morning, the coalition was expected to hold 68 seats, against the opposition Labor Party’s 70 seats and five to independents and the Greens Party. A further seven seats were in the balance.

With just six seats left to be determined in the House of Representatives, it was unclear if the coalition would win enough to form a government without an alliance with small parties and independents to get a majority.