Australian Elections Still Unresolved

You may not have noticed but there was a national election in Australia on Saturday and, as of today, it is still not clear who has won enough seats to form a government. In fact, it may turn out that only a minority government could actually be formed with some of the smaller parties that have won under 20 seats which would probably pave the way for new elections sometime in the near future. There are still a handful of races to be determined and mail-in ballots are currently being counted but it appears the governing Liberal coalition is barely in the lead and looks the most likely to be able to form a government. Whatever happens, this election was a big win for the opposition Labor party led by Bill Shorten. He focused on the broken promises of the current government, especially with regard to Medicare, and also benefited from the unpopularity of former Liberal MP Tony Abbott, who was ousted in a leadership battle by Malcolm Turnbull, and the divisions that caused in the Liberal party. As the remaining ballots are being counted in an excruciatingly long process, the calls for electronic voting are increasing throughout the country. Finally, this is yet another example of recent elections that have basically been virtual ties, including the one in Spain earlier this year and the most recent Austrian election. It seems that the electorate everywhere is deeply divided.