Billionaire Clive Palmer has accused the Australian Electoral Commission of "complete incompetence" after more doubts emerged during the recount of votes for Western Australia's new senators.
After a week of recounting, it has been revealed several hundred ballot papers could be added to the below-the-line tally, following an initial count that unseated Greens senator Scott Ludlam, who fell just 14 votes short at a crucial choke point.
With the Palmer United Party candidate Dio Wang winning a seat the first time around, the decision to hold a recount at all was labelled undemocratic by the party's outspoken leader.
The new confusion during the recount has angered him further.
"Discrepancies in the recount of the WA Senate vote is just more complete incompetence from the @AusElectoralCom," Mr Palmer tweeted.
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The recount for the WA senate positions has been going for more than a week, with 750,000 of the 1.25 million votes counted.
Phil Diak from the AEC said several hundred votes originally labelled informal were now to be checked via the commission's computer system.
"There are no decisions at the moment, but from the 700,000 counted to date there have been something like 400 (to be rechecked)," Mr Diak told Fairfax radio.
"It is a small number that will be put through the computer to double check their formality."
With all parties having dozens of scrutineers in the counting room, Senator Ludlam said he was happy with the process so far.
"It is going to come down to the wire, and I understand our scrutineers have found handfuls (of votes) here and there that were put on the wrong pile," Senator Ludlam said.
Whatever the result, it is being reported the ALP will consider an appeal to the Court of Disputed Returns if candidate Louise Pratt loses her seat, which could mean a result being delayed until the end of the year.
