admin /31 August, 2010
Row erupts over vote count
Posted 26 minutes ago
Still counting: The row centres on the latest two-party preferred figures (James McHale)
A political row is raging over what measure should be used to determine who has won the federal election.
With about 80 per cent of the votes from the inconclusive federal election counted, the Coalition is now ahead by more than 1,900 votes on a two-party preferred basis as well as leading in the primary vote standings.
A recalculation also means eight seats have now been temporarily removed from the count as they do not involve a contest between the two main parties.
Four of the removed seats – O’Connor, Lyne, New England and Kennedy – are broadly conservative, while the seats of Melbourne, Batman, Grayndler and Denison lean towards Labor.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard had been using Labor’s lead in the two-party preferred vote to claim a mandate for Labor forming government.
Now the deputy Liberal leader, Julie Bishop, says Ms Gillard has lost her “moral authority” and “legitimacy” and should admit she has “lost the election”.
But Greens leader Bob Brown says the figure is meaningless because eight seats have been taken out of the equation.
“If you look at the whole of Australia and you treat every seat equally, when you do that Labor’s ahead and is likely to keep that lead right the way through to the finishing pole,” he said.
And ABC election analyst Antony Green has warned the final two-party preferred vote will not be known for several weeks.
Writing in his ABC blog this morning, Mr Green said the AEC’s current count was incomplete without all 150 seats included.
“What is now displayed on the AEC’s website is a total of the two-party preferred vote in the 142 electorates that have finished as two-party contests. It excludes the eight electorates that did not,” he writes.
