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Labor confident in Queensland election

Author
AAP,
Publish Date
Sun, 26 Nov 2017, 5:20PM
Labor's Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (Getty Images)
Labor's Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (Getty Images)

Labor confident in Queensland election

Author
AAP,
Publish Date
Sun, 26 Nov 2017, 5:20PM

Labor is confident of forming a majority government in Queensland as counting continues in 13 undecided seats following Saturday's poll.

State Secretary Evan Moorhead says the party has won 43 seats and needs to win four of the undecided seats to form government in the 93-seat parliament.

The party was currently leading in six of the 13, he said, and "very close" in another five.

"We're confident that as counting continues, Labor will confirm a majority in the Queensland Parliament," he said in a statement.

Mr Moorhead also claimed credit for "rescuing" the Liberal National Party in a number of regional seats, following a disastrous slide in the opposition's vote.

"Our principled decision to put One Nation last has rescued the LNP in regional Queensland, where their vote has collapsed."

The ABC's election analyst Antony Green has also called the election for Labor, predicting the party will win 48 seats - one more than the magic number of 47 - to gain a majority government.

Mr Green predicts the Liberal National Party will claim 39 and the Katter's Australian Party two, while MPs from One Nation, Greens and an independent will also sit on the crossbench.

"It looks like the Palaszczuk government is certainly returned, they have 44 definite seats," he said on Sunday.

"There are two others they are likely to get, which will get them to 46; our projection is they will get two more and get to 48."

Mr Green says even if Labor falls short of 47 seats, they will still form government with the help of the Katters or an independent like Rockhampton Mayor Margaret Strelow, who was formerly a member of the ALP.

"Even if (Ms Palaszczuk) falls one seat short, she can lead it to government; it is likely that at least some of the crossbench would vote in their favour."

While counting resumed on Sunday, a definitive result could still be several days away, as many seats will come down to preferences on pre-poll and postal votes.

An Electoral Commission Queensland spokeswoman said both pre-poll and postal votes are significantly up on the 2015 election, with more than 800,000 people voting before election day.

She said absentee votes, including those lodged in nine overseas booths, also proved a logistical problem with those needed to be transported to their electorates before they can be counted.

The count has also been complicated by One Nation's decision to preference the Greens last and all sitting MPs second last, and the reintroduction of compulsory preferential voting.

It's been a bad result for the LNP, with three opposition frontbenchers in Scott Emerson, Ian Walker and Andrew Cripps all in grave danger of losing their seats.

It was an even worse election for Pauline Hanson's One Nation party, which is yet to pick up a seat and lost its state leader, Steve Dickson, and star candidate Malcolm Roberts, when they failed to make an impact in Buderim or Ipswich.

The Greens lost to Jackie Trad in South Brisbane, but the party's candidate Amy MacMahon savaged the deputy premier's big majority.

But in the new Brisbane seat of Maiwar, the Greens are in with a fighting chance of having their first MP in the Queensland parliament.

Mr Emerson, the LNP's shadow treasurer looks to be gone, with the fight now between Labor's Ali King or the Greens Michael Berkman.

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