Australia's parliamentary election was on a knife-edge Saturday with Tony Abbott's conservatives in with a chance of an upset victory over Prime Minister Julia Gillard's Labor Party. With three-quarters of the votes counted, independent analysts are predicting the Liberal-led conservatives will hold 73 seats in the 150-member Parliament, Labor 72 and independents five, dpa reported. "I think it's clear Labor are not going to get a majority tonight," said opposition Liberal parliamentarian Nick Minchin. Abbott needs to win 17 seats from Labor to secure the 76 needed to hold a majority. "On all the available evidence, you would proceed from the starting point that we would just fall below (a majority of 76 seats)," Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said. Both Labor and Liberal are middle-of-the-road parties with similar foreign policies and a change of government would have little impact outside Australia. The vote showed Labor gained nothing from dumping Kevin Rudd as prime minister in a sensational palace coup two months ago. Before the counting was over, the recrimination within Labor had begun. Failed Labor candidate Maxine McKew savaged Gillard's campaign and suggested Rudd would have led the party to victory. "Clearly you can't have the removal of a Labor leader and a prime minister and not have that play into the outcome," McKew said. Gillard, the first female prime minister, is a 48-year-old former law firm partner who campaigned on Labor's success in staving off recession during the global financial crisis. But because the much-praised cash-splash was the handiwork of her predecessor, Gillard's saddlebags were weighed down by outrage over the brutal removal of Rudd, who less than a year ago was Australia's most popular premier ever. Abbott, 52, a genial but erratic right-winger, has surprised colleagues by running a polished and disciplined campaign. His mantra is the need to retire Labor's debt, get the budget out of deficit and staunch the flow of mostly Middle Eastern asylum- seekers sailing from Indonesia. -- SPA
