Federal election 2019: Key seats still in doubt

Prime Minister Scott Morrison appears set to have the 78 seats he needs to govern in majority, with just one seat still too close to call.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison appears set to have the 78 seats he needs to govern in majority.

The Australian Electoral Commission is continuing to count postal voters in Chisholm, but the Liberal candidate Gladys Liu is in line to win the seat. She now holds 50.7 per cent of the vote, ahead of Labor’s Jennifer Yang.

There is just one seat still in doubt. The Liberals’ Sarah Richards is ahead of Labor MP Susan Templeman in Macquarie, NSW, with the AEC website showing only a couple of hundred voters between them.

FEDERAL

2019

Seats still in doubt

IN_DOUBT

In the previous parliament, the coalition had 74 seats, Labor had 69, there were four independents and the Greens, Centre Alliance and Katter’s Australian Party had one each.

Along with counting postal votes for all 151 seats in the House of Representatives, the AEC on Tuesday began its Central Senate Scrutiny process. Under a process, a computer is used to register the 100-million plus preferences marked on Senate ballot papers, which are later verified by a human operator.

The coalition’s Senate numbers could rise from 31 to 34 out of 76 seats. The government will need to rely on either Labor, nine Greens senators or five out of six conservative crossbenchers to get its legislation through parliament.

The election writ must be returned by June 28.