Australian Motoring Enthusiast party to enter Senate as Palmer faces recount

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/01/motoring-enthusiast-candidate-enter-senate

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Ricky Muir of the Australian Motoring Enthusiast party will enter the Senate on a primary vote of less than 1%, while the mining magnate Clive Palmer will face a recount in Fairfax after beating his Liberal National party opponent Ted O'Brien by just seven votes.

In South Australia, the Family First candidate Bob Day came in ahead of Labor's "machine man" Don Farrell, who was pressured to relinquish the No 1 spot on the ALP ticket for the senior frontbencher Penny Wong. It proved to be essential for Wong's survival, as Farrell lost the seat.

The Australian Electoral Commission released the Senate results for South Australia, Victoria and the ACT on Tuesday.

The AEC confirmed that Muir had taken the sixth spot in the Victorian Senate race as a result of preference flows from other micro parties. Janet Rice of the Greens picked up the fifth spot in Victoria.

As a result, the Liberal's Helen Kroger lost her spot in Victoria. Mitch Fifield and Scott Ryan of the Coalition were returned, while Gavin Marshall and Jacinta Collins were returned for Labor. The former Labor senator David Feeney had retired to contest Martin Ferguson's seat of Batman, which he subsequently won.

In South Australia, Cory Bernardi and Simon Birmingham were returned for the Liberal party, Penny Wong (Labor) and Sarah Hanson-Young (Greens) keeping their seats.

The billionaire Clive Palmer has to wait a little longer to find out whether he wins the Queensland lower house seat of Fairfax, where the 89,000 votes will be formally recounted according to the rules for results with margins less than 100.

In the ACT, Kate Lundy returned for Labor and Zed Seselja won the second spot for the Liberals, replacing Gary Humphries, whom he beat in a preselection battle.

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