Election results show Liberals ahead by a nose

Cobber, it's as tight as the proverbial.

The Australian election has gone down to the wire with pundits flailing helplessly to call a result.

The two fresh faces vying to be Prime Minister of Australia - Labor incumbent Julia Gillard and the Liberal challenger Tony Abbott - strained for the line in an election race as close as a photo finish in the Melbourne Cup.

Early east coast exit polls picked a very narrow win for Gillard, raising Labour hopes.

But the first results from election officials showed the Liberal coalition taking a slim lead over Labor. And through the night, the figures kept tending towards the Liberals.

Abbott's party was aided by a record vote for the Greens and for independent candidates, a vote in reaction to Abbott's scepticism about climate change, but one that could ultimately cost Labor.

"Australians have spoken," said one analyst, "but we might not know what they have said for four days."

With more than 14 million people enrolled to vote, narrow results in some electorates could see legal challenges. Political analysts were last night contemplating a possible hung parliament, where neither Labor nor the Liberal-led coalition is able to form a government alone.

That possibility was increased as the Green Party ripped the electorate of Melbourne from Labor - a historic triumph as the environmental party won its first-ever seat in the lower house.

The Liberal-National coalition needs to gain 17 Labor seats to win the election by garnering a swing of 2.3 per cent across the country. But the government can lose its majority if it drops 13 seats.

Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan said it would take days of counting before it was clear who could actually form a government.

"It's very close," Swan said, referring to the possibility that his centre-left Labor Party had lost the seats of government. "I think it's just too early to come to that conclusion."

Former Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke said: "I hope we'll be calling a Labor victory, but I'm realistic."

Former Liberal leader John Hewson, who lost the 1993 election to Paul Keating, said Gillard becoming prime minister had marked the start of a comeback for the coalition - but not enough to win outright. A hung Parliament looked likely.

The choice, for Australians, was between electing their fourth prime minister in three years or sticking with their first woman leader.

Gillard, a 48-year-old former lawyer with a partner who is a hairdresser, came to power in a June 24 internal coup in her centre-left Labor Party, ousting Kevin Rudd and almost immediately calling an election.

She was vying with Tony Abbott, a married 52-year-old former Roman Catholic seminarian with three daughters who gained the endorsement eight months ago of his conservative Liberal Party, which has led Australia for most of the past 60 years.

Abbott voted at a beachside polling booth in his Sydney electoral district early yesterday and then helped barbecue breakfast to raise money for his volunteer lifeguard club. "This is a big day for our country," Abbott said.

Gillard campaigned yesterday in key Sydney districts at risk of swinging to the conservatives, before flying home to Melbourne to vote.

Oz facts

* Almost 1200 candidates are vying for 150 seats in the House of Representatives and 40 of the 76 seats in the Senate. The party or coalition that can form a majority in the lower house forms the government.

* Voting is mandatory for more than 14 million of Australia's 22 million people. Failing to vote carries a fine.

* Julia Gillard is Australia's first woman Prime Minister and has led the centre-left Labor Party's first-term Government since June, when she ousted Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in an internal party revolt.

* Opposition leader Tony Abbott is his conservative Liberal Party's third leader since it lost power in 2007.

* The opposition Liberal-led coalition won 64 seats in the lower house during the last election, although one MP has since become an independent. The coalition needs a swing of less than 3 per cent of votes to deliver the 13 seats it needs to form a government.

* The left-wing, environmentally focused Australian Greens party is expected to increase its five seats in the Senate and could hold the balance of power.

- AAP