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Australian premier defies calls by critics to step down

Tuesday, 05 July 2016 6:59 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 05 July 2016 6:59 AM ]

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull ©AFP

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has defied widespread calls by critics for his resignation as election experts predict the country would be facing a hung parliament following debacle polls.

“I want to make it quite clear that as prime minister and leader of the Liberal Party, I take full responsibility for our campaign. The Australian people have voted, and we respect the result,” Turnbull said on Tuesday.

On Monday, leader of the opposition Labor Party Bill Shorten urged the premier to step down, saying Turnbull has pushed the country into “instability” through the dramatic parliamentary elections on Saturday.

Turnbull had dissolved both houses of the parliament in May and called for snap elections as he was confident that his ruling coalition would clinch an outright win.

After ousting the then prime minister, Tony Abbott, in a party-room coup less than a year ago, Turnbull called for the elections to draw a line under a period of political crisis that had seen four prime ministers in three years.

The polling, however, backfired and put his own leadership in question.

Turnbull, however, said, “There is no doubt that there is a level of disillusionment with politics, with government and with the major parties. We need to listen very carefully to concerns of the Australian people expressed through this election.”

So far, neither his coalition nor Shorten’s center-left Labor Party has secured the required 76 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives to form a government.

An Australian voter looks at the ballot paper at a voting station in the Sydney suburb of Bondi Beach on July 2, 2016. ©AFP

Electoral officials began counting 1.5 million postal and absentee votes that will be crucial to the result of Saturday’s election.

Turnbull’s coalition has secured only 68 lower house seats, and the center-left Labor opposition 67, with 10 seats remaining in doubt, according to projections by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The commission said the process is likely to carry on for days or possibly weeks.

Meanwhile, former prime minister, John Howard, along with Attorney-General George Brandis and Treasurer Scott Morrison joined a chorus to urge unity behind Turnbull.

“This hasn’t been an outcome we wanted but it's not the end of the world,” Howard said. “People shouldn’t start slitting their throats, certainly not Liberals.”

If the prime minister’s coalition party fails to form a government, it would be the first time in 85 years an Australian ruling party has lost power after its first term in office.

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