Australia Federal Election 2016: Calls for PM Malcolm Turnbull to resign

Officials will resume counting votes Tuesday for about a dozen seats that are too close to call.

The strategy backfired. With 80% of votes counted, the Liberal-National coalition was on track to win 70 seats in the 150-member lower house of Parliament.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and opposition Labour party leader Bill Shorten on Monday began talks with independent MPs in an attempt to form a minority government.

According to the Australian Electoral Commission, Labor is leading with 69 seats, while Liberal closely follows with 64. The major parties need 76 seats to form a majority government in the House of Representatives.

Mr Albanese said it was hard to see Labor having an absolute majority, although the Coalition might be able to.

Despite Turnbull amending voting laws the Senate may remain eclectic, with populist firebrands including former soldier Jacqui Lambie, and controversial broadcaster Derryn Hinch tipped to win upper-house seats.

“People feel neglected”, said Xenophon, who supports greater protection for Australian industry.

Bloomberg News reported that, largely as a result of a vexing budget gap successive Australian governments have been struggling with since the 2008 financial crisis, the election result threatens to undermine the nation’s top credit rating. “There is still a chance that the election might lead to sanity and stability, but hope is dimming fast”.

It is a similar story in the upper house Senate, with anti-immigration firebrand Pauline Hanson set to make a return to Canberra after an absence of almost 20 years.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull waves to supporters after he addressed a reception on election night in Sydney, Australia, Sunday, July 3, 2016.

Echoing the speech Mr Turnbull gave when he lost the republic referendum in 1999, Ms Credlin said; “Malcolm Turnbull, you’re the man who broke the Liberal Party’s heart”.

Turnbull ousted Abbott in a leadership vote among Liberal Party politicians in September 2015, promising to be more popular and stable than his predecessor.

Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen said he expects Mr Shorten to be re-elected unopposed if the Coalition forms government.

With counting expected to take several days, possibly weeks, the uncertainty is likely to put downward pressure on the Australian dollar and the share market as analysts warned Australia’s triple A credit rating could be at risk.

Attorney-General George Brandis said the Coalition remained “quietly confident” it could secure a “working majority” in the Lower House.

Mr Shorten ridiculed Mr Turnbull’s promise of stability and described him as the “David Cameron of the southern hemisphere” who led a divided party that had already broken out in “internal civil war”.

Australia’s shock election result – with a hung parliament the most likely outcome – has left Turnbull’s future in tatters and delivered an extra surprise: the political comeback of Pauline Hanson, an anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim firebrand.

Shorten mocked Turnbull for assuring voters that sticking with the coalition was the safer, steadier choice amid the global chaos prompted by Britain’s decision to exit the European Union and British Prime Minister David Cameron’s subsequent resignation.

If Mr. Turnbull fails to build a new coalition, Australia may have to appoint its fifth prime minister since 2010.