Election Quick Count Are They Valid?

[CountArach]

So at your step 5, "The victorious party is declared and forms provisional government... ", the previous gov't is completely out of power; no decision-making ability at all, the new 'provo gov't' is in charge - pending formal counts and approvals. Yes?

So if, on E-Day plus 1, the US invades you, it would be on the new guys to react/defend/whatever?

Spot on. In the case of an invasion it is almost certain we would have an emergency session of parliament where all newly elected members are sworn in and the new government is confirmed. In the case of an individual seat's election being undecided at this point it is likely the seat would not have a member for a period of time until the count could be completed.

In the highly unlikely case of an overall Election result being uncertain our Governor General would probably force the major parties into coalition to deal with the crisis until such a time as one party can govern on their own or the crisis is completed. This is one advantage of the Westminster system - it is very flexible.