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SUBJECT Australia’s ruling Liberal Party loses one-seat parliamentary majority in by-election
DATE 2018-10-24
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In the by-election held on October 20th, Australia’s ruling Liberal Party lost one-seat majority.

 

The deciding vote was from Wentworth, a town in the southwest of the state of New South Wales. Wentworth constituency was declared for independent candidate Kerryn Phelps from the counting which continued into a second day.

 

After the victory, Phelps, a local doctor and popular independent candidate, told her supporters that “this win tonight should signal a return of decency, integrity and humanity to the Australian government.”

 

Australia has had six prime ministers in the past eight years, and now faces further uncertainty as the governing coalition lost its majority in the parliament ahead of next year’s general election in June.

 

Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s centre-right party had been fighting to hold Wentworth seat, which was vacated by his predecessor Malcom Turnbull. Former Prime Minister Turnbull was ousted in the party coup in August.

 

Prime Minister Morrison said at an event for Liberal candidate Dave Sharma that “the Liberal Party has paid a big price tonight for the events of several months ago” but “as a party, we will continue to rise again”.

 

The election results indicate that the ruling coalition would need to rely on independent MPs to survive confidence votes.

 

BY MSEAP Cyber Secretariat (mseap@assembly.go.kr)