Fed: Leadership ballot unknown, says Lees

AAP General News (Australia)
04-05-2001
Fed: Leadership ballot unknown, says Lees

CANBERRA, April 5 AAP - Even though tomorrow could be her last day as Australian Democrats
leader, Meg Lees was treating today as any other.

Senator Lees said she could not predict the outcome of tomorrow's leadership ballot
with her deputy Natasha Stott Despoja.

Asked whether she would treat today any differently, Senator Lees said: "Absolutely
not, absolutely not."

On the outcome of the result, she said: "I really don't know. I really don't know.

We'll just wait and see."

The count, which will also determine the new party deputy, is not expected to be completed
until late tomorrow night.

Senator Lees said she was uncertain as to where she would be tomorrow night, saying
it would depend on where she was having dinner to celebrate her husband's birthday.

"I actually don't know (where I'll be tomorrow night)," she said.

"I'm being taken out for dinner. It's my husband's birthday."

Opinion polls have given Senator Stott Despoja the edge - one taken in the Queensland
seat of Ryan showed she was more popular than both Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition
Leader Kim Beazley.

Democrats West Australian Senator Andrew Murray today agreed the outcome of the ballot
was impossible to know and said he would be in Perth when the outcome was revealed.

"Anybody who thinks they've got an idea is just talking porkies. How do you check on
several thousand members? There's no poll done. There's no way of knowing," he said.

The postal ballot closed last Friday.

AAP lm/mg/br

KEYWORD: DEMOCRATS LEES (CARRIED EARLIER)

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