Australia faces hung parliament after shock by-election

Australia is once again facing political turmoil and uncertainty, after a shock by-election defeat saw the governing coalition lose its one-seat parliamentary majority.

The knife-edge vote for former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s Wentworth constituency in suburban Sydney was finally declared for independent candidate Kerryn Phelps, a local doctor, after counting continued into a second day.

The result represented a 19% swing against the ruling Liberal Party compared to the 2016 election, “one of the largest ever swings in a federal by-election”, says the Daily Mail.

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Even before the result had been officially declared, the Liberal Party was “already turning in on itself”, reports News.com.au.

The news site says the conservatives are “split between those who blame Turnbull for the defeat and those who say it’s the Liberal Party’s own fault for knifing him”.

While the post-mortem rages, the immediate effect of the result is that the Liberal Party’s ruling coalition with the nine-seat National Party “will probably have to rely on support from independent lawmakers to survive the next few months, as a general election is due by May next year”, reports Reuters.

It is a bitter blow to new Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who drew sharp criticism during the campaign by raising the possibility of moving the Australian embassy in Israel to Jerusalem - seen as a blatant attempt to woo Wentworth’s large Jewish community .

Now, less than two months into the job and with two independent MPs already vowing not to back him, his position is already precarious.

The ouster of Turnbull over the summer brought Australia to its sixth prime minister in eight years, and this by-election “sent a blunt message to Australia's political class that back-stabbing and party dysfunction won't be tolerated” reports the BBC’s Phil Mercer.