- Australia’s Conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison has admitted defeat in the general election.
- He called opposition leader Anthony Albanese from the Labor Party and congratulated him on his victory, Morrison said late in the evening (local time).
- The 54-year-old, who has been head of government since 2018, spoke of a “difficult night for the liberals”.
According to preliminary calculations, the party can count on at least 71 seats in the lower house. The majority is 76 seats. The right-wing conservative coalition under Prime Minister Scott Morrison initially only had 49 seats and can no longer achieve a majority.
Legend:
Heir to the incumbent Prime Minister Scott Morrison: Anthony Albanese.
key stone
This will most likely make Albanese the country’s 31st prime minister. The 59-year-old has been Vice Prime Minister in the past. He has been head of the laboratory since 2019.
Independents and greens make for difficult prognosis
Labor has not been in power in Australia for almost a decade. Even more than eight hours after the start of the vote count, the outcome of the election was very unclear. The main reason was the good performance of many independent candidates and the Australian Greens (The Greens).
Around 17 million eligible voters were called upon to vote for all 151 seats in the House of Commons and half of the 78 seats in the Senate. There is a compulsory choice. Around half of Australians have reportedly voted in advance, either by absentee ballot or early voting. The 2.7 million postal votes had not yet been counted on Saturday.