Palmer United's Zhenya Wang to represent WA in the Senate; Greens' Scott Ludlam loses seat

Updated

The Palmer United Party (PUP) looks to have secured a third seat in the Senate after a tight race in Western Australia, but the result will be challenged by the Greens after Senator Scott Ludlam lost out.

PUP candidate Zhenya Wang and sitting Labor Senator Louise Pratt won the last two West Australian Senate seats, joining the Liberal Party's David Johnston, Michaelia Cash and Linda Reynolds, together with the ALP's Joe Bullock in the Upper House.

While the results will not be formally declared until tomorrow, the count shows Mr Wang has gained a seat for PUP and Senator Pratt will narrowly scrape in.

ABC election analyst Antony Green says 14 votes were the difference between the PUP and ALP candidates finishing fifth and sixth over the Greens and the Australian Sports Party.

It was predicted early in the counting that the Australian Sports Party's Wayne Dropulich would pick up a seat due to preference deals, but he has missed out.

The Sports Party will also launch a challenge to the result.

In the Lower House, polls are automatically recounted if there is a gap of fewer than 100 votes. However, parties vying for Upper House seats must request a recount.

The Australian Electoral Commission's Brendon Barlow says the West Australian Electoral Commissioner will consider the requests over the next 24 hours.

"He'll look at the grounds that have been specified in those requests and he'll make a determination on each of the grounds and then he'll inform the candidates that have lodged the requests of the outcome," he said.

Ludlam says preferential voting system being manipulated

Senator Ludlam says the preferential voting system has cost the Greens his seat and resulted in the PUP candidate winning.

The Greens had a primary vote in the Senate of 124,268, while PUP received 65,511.

Senator Ludlam says the preferential voting system is being manipulated and there needs to be a review of Australia's election processes.

"It appears they've been elected on roughly half the vote of the Greens and that's the sort of result that our voting system throws up from time to time," Senator Ludlam said.

"Basically it's an elegant system that's being now expertly gamed and manipulated.

"So good luck to the people that who've got in that way, but the whole purpose of an electoral system is to as accurately as possible represent the voting will of the Australian people. and it actually has let us down in this instance.

"I'm not referring specifically to WA but overall the system's being manipulated."

Greens leader Christine Milne says the Senate stands to lose an intelligent and passionate environmental and social justice advocate in Senator Ludlam if the current result stands.

"The entire party room is devastated at the thought of Scott leaving the Senate next year," she said.

"Scott is widely respected in Parliament and in the community for his passion, his wealth of knowledge and his calm and reasoned demeanour."

Senator Ludlam is no stranger to defeat, having unsuccessfully contested the 2001 and 2005 state elections.

Relegated Pratt just sneaks in

Senator Pratt was elected to the Upper House in 2007 as the ALP's top Senate pick, but was dropped to number two on the ticket behind union heavyweight Joe Bullock for the 2013 election.

She has been a strong advocate of same-sex marriage and co-sponsored a bill to amend the Marriage Act (1961) to enable same-sex marriages to be recognised.

Her speech in support of the bill, which was defeated, gained widespread attention.

Mr Wang, who is the managing director of Australasian Resources, said during the election campaign that he planned to abolish the carbon tax and focus on downstream processing of Australian natural resources.

Topics: federal-elections, perth-6000, wa

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