Clive Palmer claims Fairfax seat after winning recount by 53 votes
Mining magnate Clive Palmer has been cleared to sit in the House of Representatives in the new 44th parliament, with the Australian Electoral Commission declaring him victorious in the lower house seat of Fairfax.
Palmer has secured the sunshine coast seat on a recount, defeating the LNP candidate Ted O'Brien by just 53 votes.
The recount in Fairfax was challenged at every point by scrutineers and according to AEC officials is the longest recount in recent political history.
The official declaration of the Fairfax result will take place at noon on Friday in Maroochydore.
The declaration of the Fairfax result came on a day where Palmer resumed rhetorical warfare with the AEC, accusing the commission of trying to rig the 2013 election in an effort to deprive his Palmer United party representatives of balance of power.
The blistering attack from Palmer on Thursday relates to the AEC losing 1375 senate ballot papers during a separate Senate recount in Western Australia. The embarrassing blunder in the west will be the subject of an investigation by former federal police chief Mick Keelty. The WA recount was triggered by Greens senator Scott Ludlam, who lost out narrowly to a PUP candidate.
If Palmer goes on to take his place in the House of Representatives he will be required, like other parliamentarians, to declare his interests publicly on the pecuniary interest register.
It is unclear how he will balance the demands of politics and the potential for specific conflicts of interest with the substantial practical demands of managing his various business interests.
Palmer has suggested previously that if he secured Fairfax he would direct his senate group as PUP leader in a conventional political party arrangement, just as leaders of the Liberal party and the ALP direct their senators.