A shell-shocked Liberal National Party has retreated from the spotlight in Queensland after suffering one of the most surprising electoral defeats in Australian history.
Premier Campbell Newman early Sunday morning made a brief stop at his offices at Parliament House and the government's executive building to collect his belongings before driving off with wife Lisa just as quickly.
LNP staffers had indicated one of the party's other leaders, like Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney, might comment publicly on the shock result but nothing eventuated on Sunday.
The party knew it was likely to see a swing away from it after claiming a mammoth 78 out of 89 seats in 2012, but tears, silence and stunned faces at the LNP's election night function indicated just how shocked supporters were.
The LNP won't be able to win enough seats to even form a minority government, but it wouldn't matter anyway, given Independent Peter Wellington has refused to support the party and the two re-elected Katter's Australian Party MPs Shane Knuth and Rob Katter would be unlikely to.
The once-dominant political force's attention will now turn to who will lead it in opposition after Mr Newman was convincingly defeated in his inner-Brisbane electorate of Ashgrove, becoming the first Queensland premier in 100 years to lose his seat.
He will stay on as caretaker premier until a clear result is known.
Mr Seeney, Health Minister Lawrence Springborg, Treasurer Tim Nicholls and Transport Minister Scott Emerson are just some of the potential candidates to become the LNP's next leader.
Mr Emerson was the only potential successor to speak publicly on Sunday, but refused to say whether he would put his hand up for contention.
"Those decisions will be made by the party room in due course," he told ABC Radio.
Mr Emerson said the result could negatively influence future governments.
"My concern is that governments in the future will be timid and take the soft options rather than actually doing what's right for Queensland," he said.
Meanwhile the party's president, Bruce McIver, said Prime Minister Tony Abbott upset voters, particularly his decision to confer a knighthood on Prince Philip in the last week of the campaign.
"I was shocked. I would have rather (Queensland rugby league great) Wally Lewis get the gong," he said.
But Mr McIver didn't point his finger solely at the Abbott government, saying the LNP would conduct an independent, external review of what went wrong.
"Campbell and his team had to do a lot of hard decisions," he said.
"Whether those decisions were accepted by the people, or the way they were done was accepted by the people, is one of the things we'll be looking at."
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