By Renju Jose

SYDNEY, (Reuters) – Australia’s Labor party appears set to form its next government following unprecedented support from climate-focused independents that ended a decade of conservative government rule. However, the government might not have a majority.

Labor’s centre-left is only 4-5 votes short of winning a majority in the 151-seat lower chamber. A dozen voters are close to calling the result, TV channels reported Sunday. Labor will be seeking to return power for the first times since 2013.

After independents defeated Scott Morrison’s Liberal Party in many of their traditional strongholds and campaigned to increase action on climate change, Anthony Albanese, Labor leader, will be the 31st Prime Minister. Labor lost a lot of its vote share due to strong support from Greens and the independents.

Josh Frydenberg Treasurer was set to lose to Monique Ryan, an independent minister. He could be the lowest-ranking minister to ever lose.

Albanese said in his victory speech that he wanted to be sworn into office on Monday with some of the senior members. He then headed off to Tokyo on Tuesday to attend a Quad meeting alongside Joe Biden, U.S. president, and Indian prime ministers.

Richard Marles, deputy leader of Labor, said that the party still has enough seats to be able to run its own government.

Marles stated that “I believe there’s a lot of counting left, but we are optimistic that we can reach a majority ourselves,” on Sunday to ABC Television.

Official results might not come for several days. The counting of an unprecedented 2.7million postal votes will begin on Sunday afternoon. It is currently two days before the previous election.

Independents can play a significant role in framing government policies regarding climate change as well as the effort to establish a national anticorruption commission if there is a hung parliament.

Frydenberg is likely to be reelected as party leader, and Morrison has stepped down as party leader. Defence Minister Peter Dutton, a Queenslander policeman was emerging as the favourite to head the Liberals.

Barnaby Joyce is the junior partner of the Liberals, the National Party. He stated Australia requires a “strong government.” This needs to be supported as well as held accountable.

Joyce stated that it was necessary to move from good government to good opposition on Sunday to Sky News.