The federal party room of the Liberal Party of Australia has voted to change its leader this evening local time (UTC+10). Malcolm Turnbull has been elected over incumbent Prime Minister Tony Abbott 54 votes to 44.

"This has been a very important sobering event", Turnbull told the media an hour after the ballot. Turnbull had requested a leadership ballot at about 4:30pm. The meeting, in which the ballot was held, started about 9:15pm with the announcement of the result at about 9:55pm.

"Malcolm Turnbull has been like the sword of Damocles hanging over Tony Abbott's head ever since he was defeated by Abbott in the leadership ballot in 2009 by just one vote", Zareh Ghazarian, Social Sciences Lecturer at Monash University, wrote in reaction to the result. "Tonight the two Liberal Party heavyweights faced off again and Turnbull exacted revenge."

The leadership spill came just under a week before the Canning by-election.

Source: Wikinews