Via the BBC: Australia PM Julia Gillard to form minority government
Julia Gillard will stay as Australia’s prime minister after winning the backing of two key independent MPs.
Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott held the balance of power in parliament after a fellow independent MP, Bob Katter, backed opposition leader Tony Abbott.
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It gives Ms Gillard’s Labor Party the backing of one more MP in the lower house than the Liberal-led coalition.
This ends 17 days of drama and negotiation as Gillard’s Labor Party and its rival, the Coalition, sought the support of a handful independent so as to have the necessary votes to form a new government. As the Sydney Morning Herald notes:
The independents’ support gives Ms Gillard the narrowest of margins in the 150-member House of Representatives, bringing to 76 the number of MPs willing to support Labor.
