Labor Leads Australia State election

PERTH, Australia (AP) — The opposition Labor Party claimed victory in a state election Saturday, dealing a defeat to conservatives that could bode badly for federal Prime Minister John Howard’s coalition.

Howard leads a conservative coalition made up of the same two parties apparently defeated in Saturday’s legislative elections in Western Australia. He is expected to call a federal election in October or November.

Saturday’s ballot also showed support for the far-right, anti-immigrant One Nation party in the state, Australia’s largest and most sparsely populated.

With more than 80 percent of the vote counted, One Nation was polling about 10 percent — though in some districts it saw up to 20 percent support, according to figures from the state’s electoral commission cited by the Australia Broadcasting Corp.

The distribution of the votes made it unlikely the party would have any lawmakers in the 57-seat legislature. It was, however, likely to win up to three seats in the 34-seat upper house, in which seats are chosen on the basis of the state-wide vote count.

“It’s a clear indication that we weren’t written off. We were just simmering away,” party leader Pauline Hanson told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. West Australian Election Commission

One Nation, which advocates a ban on Asian immigration and tough policies on Australia’s aborigines, shocked the main political parties when it emerged as a major force in elections in Queensland state in 1998. But all the party’s lawmakers later defected because of internal quarrels.

With 80 percent of the vote counted, Labor had 37.9 percent, while the Liberal and National parties making up the ruling coalition held a combined 34 percent, according to the election commission.

Western Australian Premier Richard Court all but conceded defeat, saying it was “very unlikely” his coalition would return to power.

If the results are confirmed, state Labor leader Geoff Gallop, who claimed victory, would become the state’s next premier.

Howard denied the result would alarm his government. “But I don’t need to be told not to be complacent about the next federal election,” he conceded. “I know it’ll be a tough fight.”

It will take days for the count to be completed under Australia’s complex electoral system.

In the old parliament, Court’s coalition held 35 seats. Labor had 18 lawmakers and independents held four. Predictions were that Labor could win a majority of as many as seven seats over the coalition when counting ends.

Western Australia covers 1,012,000 square miles — about seven times the area of Montana — but has a population of only 1.85 million, 1.3 of whom live in the capital Perth.