| The Australian
AUSTRALIA faces days of political limbo after both Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott fell short of winning a majority in their own right.
Both leaders signalled they would fight to win the support of the five independents who are likely to decide their fate.
As counting finished on the east coast, the Coalition appeared to have won 73 seats, with Labor on 72.
But the final result may not be known for up to 10 days as pre-poll and postal votes are counted.
And the Greens emerged as the big winners in the reshaping of the political landscape, taking the balance of power in the Senate as well as the lower house seat of Melbourne.
Lower house independents Tony Windsor, Rob Oakeshott and Bob Katter said they would meet to discuss how they would approach forming a stable government but in separate interviews on the ABC all three refused to back either Labor or the Coalition.
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A hung parliament has emerged as the most likely scenario after Labor's majority was smashed by big swings in Queensland and NSW that cost it a swag of seats.
But the government made gains in Victoria - taking McEwen and La Trobe from the Coalition to prevent the Opposition taking power in its own right.
But late tonight it holds narrow leads in the western Sydney seat of Lindsay and the Victorian seat of Corangamite.
A short time ago the Prime Minister addressed supporters in Melbourne citing former US President Bill Clinton's quote that “the people have spoken and it's going to take a little while to determined exactly what they said”.
She said there were many seats where the result was undecided and it would take a number of days to determine the result.
She said the Independents were likely to play a role in the next government and congratulated them on winning their seats.
Ms Gillard said she would continue to lead the government and provide “strong and stable government” until the outcome of the election was clearly known.
“I will keep fighting,” she said.
“We will continue to fight to form a government in this country.
“To those of you who have kept the faith, there are anxious days ahead. The fight for our positive plan isn't over yet.”
Mr Abbott said as there was no clear result from the election, the caretaker conventions must continue but he would be talking to the Independents over the next few days.
“What is clear from tonight is that the Labor Party has definitely lost its majority, and what that means is that the government has lost its legitimacy,” Mr Abbott said.
“And I say that a government which found it very hard to govern effecitvely with a majority of 17 seats will never be able to govern effectively in a minority.”
Mr Abbott said the Liberal and National Parties were “back in business”.
“We stand ready to govern,” he said.
Mr Abbott said 400,000 more people had voted for Coalition parties than voted for Labor which gave it the lowest primary vote of any governing party at least since World War II.
“I feel humbled as I think of the responsibilites that could lie ahead but I feel so proud of the efforts of the supporters all around the country,” Mr Abbott said.
Labor's failure to win a majority has reopened the wounds of Kevin Rudd's dumping as prime minister, with defeated star Labor candidate Maxine McKew criticising the national campaign.
Ms McKew criticised the the government's dumping of the emissions trading scheme and the lack of focus of the national campaign.
And senior Liberal strategist Nick Minchin said it was possible the Coalition could finish with more seats and a higher popular vote than Labor, which would be important in terms of who formed power.
“I think it is quite clear Labor won't get a majority tonight,” Senator Minchin said.
Speaking after losing her seat to Liberal candidate and tennis ace John Alexander, Ms McKew said Labor had failed to repeat the professional and targetted campaign of 2007.
“This national campaign has left a lot to be desired,” Ms McKew said.
She also conceded that the removal of Mr Rudd had been a factor in Labor's losses.
“Clearly you can't have the removal of a Labor leader as prime minister and two months later have an election and not have that playing into the outcome,” she said.
But Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Labor could have lost all but one seat in Western Australia if Mr Rudd was still prime minister.
As Labor and Coalition struggled to cobble together a majority of seats, the Greens emerged as a clear winner, seizing the balance of power in the Senate and winning the seat of Melbourne from Labor in the lower house.
The ranks of the cross benches could be further swelled by the potential victory of Andrew Wilkie in Denison and the victory of the Greens Adam Bandt in the formerly safe Labor seat of Melbourne, vacated by Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner.
Earlier tonight, a thrilled John Howard arrived at the Coalition's event at the Four Seasons in Sydney, saying Mr Abbott has “brought the Liberal Party back from the dead”.
Mr Howard said Mr Abbott had “delivered an outcome tonight which was beyond our wildest expectations”.
The former prime minister said he was overjoyed that his old seat of Bennelong had returned to the Liberals.
The election was “heading towards an unprecedented outcome and something that nobody had dreamt of ... overall it's been a great night but we don't know the final outcome”.
He said a lot of things were a possiblity at the moment.
Labor found its majority shattered after it lost a swag of seats in Queensland and NSW as voters smashed the government and consigned a string of MPs who rose to power on the 2007 Rudd wave as oncers.
In Queensland, Labor lost nine seats, Bonner, Brisbane, Dawson, Flynn, Forde, Leichhardt and Longman. It also held Dickson and Herbert, which were notionally Labor after the redistriction.
In NSW, Labor lost Bennelong and Macquarie and the Liberals retained Maccarthur and Gilmore, which were notionally Labor after the redistribution.
Labor also lost Solomon in the Northern Territory.
Its majority has been further shattered by the loss of Melbourne to the Greens and it faces the loss of the Tasmanian seat of Denison to independent Andrew Wilkie.
But the losses were offset by winning the two Victorian seats, McEwen and La Trobe.
In Western Australia the government also looked likely to lose Hasluck, electing the Liberals' Ken Wyatt as the first indigenous member of the House of Representatives. It also appears to have retained Swan, which was notionally Labor after the redistribution.
With 76 per cent of the vote counted Labor looks to have lost 15 seats, taking its representation to 70 and the Coalition has gained 13 seats taking it to 72 seats.
The Coalition had won 50.3 per cent of the two-party preferred vote and Labor 49.7 per cent, suffering a three per cent swing against it.
On primary votes the government has suffered a 5.4 per cent swing, while the Coalition has gained a swing of 1.7 per cent.
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