WA Senate result to be revealed

WA Greens Senator Scott Ludlum calls on the AEC not to declare the WA Senate result in the hope that missing 1300 votes will turn up. Source: News Limited

Clive Palmer, looking happy enough here, has been a furious critic of the bungled WA election count and recount. Source: News Limited

THE Australian Electoral Commission is set to announce the result of the West Australian Senate vote recount, despite more than 1300 ballots still being missing.

AEC state manager Peter Kramer says the results of the WA Senate recount and distribution of preferences will be known tomorrow afternoon.

Mr Kramer said he had advised the Senate candidates the distribution of preferences to decide six WA Senators would start at 2pm.

"In accordance with electoral procedures, candidates have been invited to appoint scrutineers to observe the process on their behalf,'' he said.

The AEC said the distribution of preferences would incorporate all formal recounted votes as well as all formal below-the-line votes that were not subject to the recount.

It admitted yeterday that 1255 formal above-the-line ballots and 120 informal votes could not be located, rechecked or verified, despite searches of every electoral premises where the ballots were stored or transported from.

Greens senator Scott Ludlam says the AEC should hold off declaring the result in the hope that hundreds of missing votes will be found.

Senator Ludlam says he hopes former Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty will track down the more than 1300 missing ballot papers.

He says he believes the AEC had done the right thing in calling in Mr Keelty.

"The question is ... is he looking for the batch of votes or is he simply trying to uncover the paper trail?" Senator Ludlam told Sky News.

"Our caution to the AEC is don't declare the results in case Mr Keelty turns up that missing batch of votes.

"That would be the simplest and by far the cheapest way of resolving the ballot."

The Palmer United Party (PUP) candidate embroiled in the vote fiasco has compared Australia's democratic process to that in his native China.

As the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) continues to search for the 1375 ballots that have gone missing in WA, PUP leader Clive Palmer has fired off numerous allegations at the AEC, including that the lost votes were designed to keep his party from power.

Missing are 1255 formal votes and 120 informal votes from electorates of Pearce and Forrest which could not be found for the recount.

And Dio Wang, an executive at a mining company majority-owned by Mr Palmer, said his democratic rights were being threatened by the AEC blunder.

"I was attracted to this country because I believed it upheld democracy and the right for people to choose,'' Mr Wang said.

"I could never have imagined ballot boxes would go missing to stop someone like myself from entering the Senate. I thought that sort of thing would only happen in China.

"After this, I am more determined than ever to fight for the people of WA, who for too long have carried the rest of Australia with royalties from the state's resources industry.''

Missing are 1255 formal votes and 120 informal votes from the electorates of Pearce and Forrest that could not be found for the recount.

That recount was called because of the close contest for the sixth Senate seat, between Greens Senator Scott Ludlam and Mr Wang.

AEC spokesman Phil Diak said the commission had looked everywhere for the missing votes and there appeared to be little prospect they would be found.

In that case, there will likely be a challenge in the High Court, sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns, and a by-election.

"This AEC lost votes disaster goes to the heart of our democracy,'' Mr Palmer said.

The recount was called because of the close contest for the sixth Senate seat, between Senator

Ludlam and Palmer United Party candidate Dio Wang.

Senator Ludlam says the recount is likely to have greater integrity because of intense party scrutiny. 

He says Greens scrutineers thought the result might have swung his way.

Senator Ludlam says businessman and PUP leader Clive Palmer, now MP for the Queensland seat of Fairfax, is the "walking definition of conflict of interest".

"You can't be an MP legislating on issues like the mining tax and the carbon price while still holding gargantuan mining interests. You can't do both. He's going to have to choose one," he said.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon paraphrased Oscar Wilde.

"To lose one vote is unfortunate, to lose two is careless but to lose 1375 votes surely must be cause for a fresh Senate election," he told ABC radio.

Senior Labor MP Anthony Albanese says as frustrating as the WA debacle is, "I think these processes have to be allowed to take their course".

Labor's Louise Pratt is one of the last WA senators to be declared in this year's election, and her spot in parliament is put in doubt by the recount.

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