Australia PM Gillard says election 'too close to call'

Australia's PM Julia Gillard has said the result of the general election is "too close to call".

She told supporters in Melbourne it could be days before the result was known and that independents could play a part in the next administration.

The BBC's Phil Mercer, in Sydney, says there is a strong possibility of the first hung parliament since 1940.

Projections by ABC indicate neither of the two main rivals will win the 76 seats needed for outright victory.

Ms Gillard is battling Tony Abbott of the conservative opposition coalition to become PM.

The election comes two months after Ms Gillard ousted Kevin Rudd in a controversial leadership challenge.

Voting is compulsory in Australia, with 14 million registered voters.

Marginal seats

Unofficial counts by ABC have given Ms Gillard's Labor party and Tony Abbott's coalition about 70 seats each.

Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan said the result was "very close" and that it might take days before it became clear who could form a government.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told ABC the election would be decided by "30 or more marginal seats throughout the country".

Initial counting had given Labor a marginal lead over Mr Abbott's coalition - but other results have suggested heavy swings against Labor, in particular in the key states of Queensland and New South Wales.

Politicians and analysts say the prospect of a hung parliament is becoming more and more likely.

Earlier, Mr Abbott, the Liberal party leader, declared that it was "a day when we can vote out a bad government".

"It's a day when we can vote in favour of a competent stable government which respects the tax payer's dollar," he said while casting his vote in Sydney.

Ms Gillard voted near her home in suburban Melbourne. "This is a tough, tight, close contest," she said.

Mr Abbott worked through the final night of the campaign.

Correspondents say he has tried to exploit the Labor party's divisions after the departure of Mr Rudd, trying to portray his coalition as a stable answer to a government beset by in-fighting.

In his campaign he has pledged to tighten immigration and has hit out at government spending. He has also toned down his well-known climate change scepticism.

Ms Gillard, a former lawyer who called a snap election shortly after coming to office, is hoping to be rewarded for the government's handling of the economy, which weathered the global recession remarkably well.

That Labor is locked into such a tight election race represents a turnaround in its fortunes since the start of the year.

Missteps by Kevin Rudd on climate change and a controversial mining tax caused his support - previously high - to fall sharply.

Ms Gillard won a leadership race in June but, despite her success, her support has fallen in the two months she has been in office.

]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11037486