Rivals See Victory in Close Australia Vote

SYDNEY, Australia â€”  This country entered a political twilight zone today after what appeared to be the closest national election in Australia’s 89-year history failed to produce a clear winner or a new government.

Instead, three-term Labor Party Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Liberal Party coalition challenger Andrew Peacock both announced that they expect to win when final votes, including mailed and absentee ballots, are counted.

Because of the tight race, analysts said that whoever wins will inherit a crippled government with no mandate. Even worse, they said, the race may produce a straight party split in Parliament, with a political deadlock making it almost impossible to govern.

“It’s a hell of a mess,� sighed political consultant Don Chip. “I think we’re in for a period of instability,� agreed Labor Party analyst Steven Bishop.

Meeting reporters early today, Hawke predicted that he will win another three years as prime minister even if his aides’ “worst-case scenario� proves true. He has been prime minister since 1983.

“We’re quite confident,� Hawke, 60, told cheering supporters in a hotel ballroom in Melbourne. “I believe I will be in a position to form the fourth Hawke Labor government.�

But moments later, at another Melbourne hotel ballroom, Peacock refused to concede defeat and instead insisted that the final count, including mailed and absentee ballots, will favor his party instead.

“We are quite optimistic,� Peacock, 51, told his supporters. “We believe we’ll shortly be in a position to form a government.�

After a bitter five-week campaign and a nail-biting election night, the dueling candidates agreed on only one thing at the end: the real winner may not be clear until late in the week.

Counting is complicated by Australia’s bizarre balloting system, in which voters choose candidates by order of numerical preference. Second-choice preferences are added until one wins a majority. Voting is compulsory under law.

With 148 seats in the lower house of Parliament, a party needs to win at least 75 seats to hold a majority and form a government.

When vote counting officially stopped at 1 a.m. today, seven hours after the polls closed, Hawke’s Labor Party appeared to be one or two seats short of a majority. Peacock’s Liberal-National coalition appeared to be five seats short. Independents apparently won two seats, with the remainder still unclear.

Hawke went into the race with a 10-seat lead and predicted that he would pick up another eight seats. Even if he wins by a slim margin, the loss of so many seats after seven years in office shows how public confidence in his leadership has sagged, analysts said.

Peacock campaigned heavily on the theme that Hawke’s government had led to soaring interest rates, a record foreign debt, rising unemployment and signs of an impending recession.

But in ads and speeches, Hawke raised doubts about Peacock’s abilities. The opposition leader pledged $2 billion in tax cuts, plus a public works program, but never explained how the scheme could be paid for, and he frequently confused his numbers.