Australia Election 2025 Results: When Will the Next Prime Minister Be Announced?

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The voting period for the 2025 federal election is drawing to a close, and the process of counting the votes has commenced.

But how soon can we expect to find out who will be Australia’s next prime minister?

Here’s what you need to know.

When will vote counting start?

All ballots cast near a voter’s designated home division on the election day, alongside most pre-poll votes for the House of Representatives, will begin to be tallied from 6pm AEST tonight.

House of Representatives votes are counted first.

This process involves an initial count of first preference votes followed by a two-candidate preferred count, which offers an early insight into who is likely to win each seat.

When will counts be reported?

There’s no hard and fast timing.

Each count — from polling places, pre-poll centres and initial postal vote counts — will be published once they’re finalised.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) said that smaller polling places will have results posted from around 7pm local time with mid to large-sized polling places from around 8 to 8.30pm local time onwards.

Pre-poll counts, which are much larger in volume, usually start being displayed from around 9.30pm local time until late.

Close seats will be prioritised wherever possible as the counting period progresses.

Senate results can only be calculated and declared after a process of scanning and verifying of ballot papers is completed, which can take a number of weeks.

When will the overall result be called?

The first indications of results in individual House of Representatives divisions are always made by electoral analysts and commentators — not the AEC.

They can generally give a projection of which party is likely to form government sometime tonight.

You can check the for the state of play.

Official seat declarations will occur in the days after election night.

The AEC must count each ballot paper at least twice in a process known as ‘fresh scrutiny’ and will not declare a House of Representatives seat unless it is mathematically certain.

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