Australians could face wait for knife-edge election result

Australians could be forced to wait until the end of the week to find out who is in charge of their government after a knife-edge national election raised the prospect of a hung parliament.

The gamble by prime minister Malcolm Turnbull to call a rare early election may have failed, with his conservative Liberal Party-led coalition on track to lose a swathe of seats in the House of Representatives — and potentially control of the country.

Mr Turnbull said he was pinning his hopes of maintaining a majority government on mail-in and early ballots that traditionally favour the conservatives.