Australian federal election 2010: Parliament hung

Australia's parliament will be hung after this year's federal election. With 73% of the nation wide vote counted, the governing Australian Labor Party has been confirmed to have 50.7% of the two party preferred votes, and predicted to win 73 seats in the House of Representatives, 3 short of majority.

The coalition of the Liberal and National parties has 70 secure seats and predicted to win 73 seats. This figure includes Queensland's Liberal National Party and the Northern Territory's Country Liberal Party, both of which are mergers of the local branches of the Liberal and National parties.

The Australian Greens have picked up their first seat at a general election in the House of Representatives. Adam Bandt is projected to become the member for the Division of Melbourne. The Greens vote in the Senate reached 12.95%, meaning 1.26 million Australians voted for the party in the upper house. Its predicted tally of nine senators will guarantee it the balance of power in the Senate.

Two days after the election, a handful of seats are still in doubt. Sky News and ABC report that three seats are in doubt, while the Australian Electoral Commission lists four.

Rob Oakeshott, a re-elected independent, told ABC Television that he and the other independents want a stable government. "If we can't get that, let's go back to the ballot box," he said.

"At the launch of our campaign this morning we had representatives from the Opposition, the shadow minister for youth as well as the Greens spokesperson for youth showing that this is not about who people vote for, it's about the fact that they've got the chance to vote," said Prime Minister Julia Gillard as she launched the campaign five weeks ago.

The ALP came to power in 2007 after they won 83 seats in the House of Representatives under the leadership of Kevin Rudd. In July 2010, Rudd was replaced as leader of the ALP and as Prime Minister by Ms Gillard.

Tony Abbott became leader of the Liberal Party of Australia in December 2009 replacing Malcolm Turnbull, who had replaced Brendan Nelson two years previously.