Gillard calls for Australian Labor Party leadership vote
Baku, February 24 (AZERTAC). Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard attempted Thursday to thwart a perceived challenge to her leadership of the Labor Party from former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd by announcing that she will put the matter to a vote of Labor members of Parliament on Monday morning.
If she loses, she said, "then I will go to the back bench and I will renounce any further ambition for the Labor leadership." She called on Rudd to make a comparable commitment.
Gillard`s announcement appeared to have been sparked by Rudd`s resignation on Wednesday, while visiting Washington, as Gillard`s foreign minister. Before departing to return to Australia, he said, "I do not believe that Prime Minister Gillard can lead the Australian Labor Party to success in the next election."
The Australian media had been abuzz in recent days with reports that Rudd was considering contesting Gillard`s leadership of the governing party.
Observers had predicted a showdown could take place next week when Parliament resumes. But Rudd`s announcement in Washington in the middle of the night caught people by surprise.
"We thought he was tucked up in bed," said Angela Cox, a reporter for the Australian Channel 7 in the United States. "He called this late press conference, so we knew something must`ve been up. But I have to say most of us were pretty shocked when he actually said he was resigning as foreign minister."
This is not the first time the two senior Labor figures have clashed; Gillard became Australia`s first female prime minister when she ousted Rudd from the Labor Party leadership in 2010 after he lost support within the party.
Tension between them in recent weeks has boiled over into newspaper columns and criticism from other party officials.
Gillard called an election in late 2010, and a big drop in support for Labor resulted in a hung parliament. Eventually three independent MPs backed Gillard, enabling her to govern with a razor-thin majority. But she has never achieved Rudd`s high levels of popularity and the prospect of Rudd challenging her for the prime ministership has been swirling and swelling, very publicly, for months.
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