Canberra: In a surprise verdict, Australia ruling conservative coalition won the country general election on Saturday, defying opinion polls that had tipped the center-left opposition party to oust it from power and promising an end to the revolving door of national leaders.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison compared his Liberal Party victory for a third three-year term to the births of his daughters, Abbey, 11, and Lily, 9, who were conceived naturally after 14 years of in vitro fertilization had failed. His wife, Jenny Morrison, suffered endometriosis.
Embracing his wife, Morrison said, “I’m standing with the three biggest miracles in my life here tonight, and tonight we’ve been delivered another one.”
Opposition leader Bill Shorten had earlier accepted defeat, as the coalition came close to a majority in the 151-seat House of Representatives, where parties need a majority to form a government. Vote counting was to continue on Sunday.
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Shorten said to his supporters, “I’m disappointed for people who depend upon Labor, but I’m glad that we argued what was right, not what was easy.”
Post the defeat, Shorten also resigned from the Labor party. The tight race raised the prospect of the coalition forming a minority government. The conservatives became a rare minority government after they dumped Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister for Morrison in an internal power struggle last August.
Opinion polls prior to Saturday election had suggested that the coalition would lose and that Morrison would have had one of the shortest tenures as prime minister in the 118-year history of the Australian federation.