THE West Australian Liberals are poised to form government after winning eight of the nine seats they required and appearing likely to take another two.
Huge swings of more than 6 per cent against the Government in many seats exceeded poll predictions of a 4 per cent swing to the Opposition.
Perth-based federal Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said 10 Labor seats appeared to have been lost and that the Liberals would almost certainly be forming a new government.
"If you had to put your money on it you would have to bet on the Liberals," Mr Smith said last night.
"My deep regret is that it is likely there will be a change of government."
Federal Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop agreed, saying the ghost of lobbyist and former premier Brian Burke had come back to haunt the Labor Party.
"I think, even though he imposed it again later, [Premier] Alan Carpenter's mistake was to lift the ban on his ministers dealing with Mr Burke," Ms Bishop said.
Former Liberal leader Matt Birney said the Labor Party was paying for calling a snap election.
"I think there was a mood out there in the electorate that said, 'We're going to pay you back for calling an early election,' " Mr Birney said.
Amid a gloomy group of supporters at the Hilton Park Bowling Club in southern Perth, Attorney-General Jim McGinty said the odds were running in the Liberals' favour.
"The swing has been a lot stronger than what the polling indicated and we've got sitting members who are hanging on, making a real fight of it against the swing," Mr McGinty said.
"But I think what you're getting is a swing that is a lot stronger than what we anticipated."
At the Seaview Golf Club in the blue ribbon electorate of Cottesloe, where Opposition Leader Colin Barnett was expected to appear, Liberal supporters were in a buoyant mood as they watched the early results.
One Liberal supporter said she thought Labor had run too much of a negative campaign.
"Voters don't want negativity and I think they've run a negative campaign. I think they were scared, to be honest."
Before the polls closed at 6pm both Mr Carpenter and Mr Barnett had continued to play down their chances of victory when they voted in their Perth electorates.
As he has done for the past week of the four-week campaign, the Premier admitted to making some mistakes in Government and promising to learn from them if he was returned to office.
Mr Barnett said it was still "a big ask" for his party to win back the eight or nine seats it needed to oust Labor.
Late polls had suggested the result was split 50-50 on the two-party preferred vote with a 4 per cent swing against the Government, but last night's vote count indicated a swing of 5.5 per cent statewide to the Liberals. BY-ELECTIONS
* Liberal Party candidate Jaime Briggs claimed victory in yesterday's byelection for the South Australian federal seat of Mayo, vacated by former foreign minister Alexander Downer.
* Independent Robert Oakeshott claimed victory last night in the byelection for the Mid North Coast federal seat of Lyne vacated by former Nationals leader Mark Vaille. The Nationals have held the seat since 1949. With more than two-thirds of the votes counted, Mr Oakeshott, had 64.1 per cent.
For more information and full election coverage visit WAtoday.com .
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