Australia’s political leaders have gathered in Canberrra to start political horse trading that could last for up to two weeks.
The prime minister, Julia Gillard, and the opposition leader, Tony Abbott, will negotiate with a small group of independent and Green MPs to see which party will be able to form a government.
Votes are still being counted by the Australian Electoral Commission, but Gillard said yesterday that it was clear that none of the major parties was likely to win the 76 seats needed for a majority.
Gillard suggested her party had the right to govern because it had won the majority of the two party preferred votes under Australia’s preferential voting system. “I think this is a critical fact to weigh in the coming days,” she said.
The opposition leader Tony Abbott said the “savage swing” against Labor meant it had “lost its legitimacy to govern”.
The negotiations are likely to end with Australia’s first coalition government in 70 years, with the balance of power lying with just three independent MPs.
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