Australia's prime minister Malcolm Turnbull spent Thursday night drowning his sorrows as he was ousted from office in a bitter row that has thrust the country's political landscape into turmoil.
On Friday morning, the ruling Liberal party named finance minister Scott Morrison as the country's new leader, after he merged victorious from a three-way race with former home affairs minister Peter Dutton and foreign minister Julie Bishop.
The ugly fight for power within the party comes just nine months before a May 2019 deadline for a new general election, and continues a torrid period of instability for Australian leadership - Mr Morrison will be the country's sixth prime minister in less than 10 years.
Mr Turnbull, who called the leadership vote after losing the majority support of the party, opted not to contest it.
The Liberal party is the senior partner in the ruling conservative coalition. The Liberal-National government has consistently trailed opposition Labor in opinion polls in recent months.
The leadership battle was sparked on Tuesday by an unsuccessful challenge by Mr Dutton, who narrowly lost a vote against Mr Turnbull.
Under intense pressure to call a second vote, Mr Turnbull convened a party meeting on Friday after receiving a letter signed by the majority of party members calling for a change of leader.
The crisis for the Liberal party is far from over, however. Mr Turnbull said before the ballot that if he lost the prime ministership he would resign from parliament, leaving the new government facing a by-election for his Sydney seat that could see it lose its one-seat majority.
And Australian media reported that the foreign minister Ms Bishop, having been defeated in the leadership ballot, would likely also resign from politics.
Mr Turnbull came to power in a party-room coup in September 2015. A social liberal and multi-millionaire former merchant banker, he has struggled to appeal to conservative voters and only narrowly won a general election in 2016.
Additional reporting by agencies
