CANBERRA, March 5 (Xinhua) -- Former Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has reiterated her view that she would have won the upcoming general election if she was chosen as prime minister in August 2018.
Bishop, who served as the minister for Foreign Affairs between 2013 and 2018 and as deputy leader of the governing Liberal Party between 2007 and 2018, ran for leadership of the party in August 2018 but was knocked out in the first round of voting.
Having since announced her retirement from politics in February, Bishop on Sunday claimed she could have defeated Bill Shorten, leader of the opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP), in May's general election but was undermined from within during the leadership ballot.
According to opinion polls, the governing Liberal-National party coalition (LNP) and Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who was chosen as leader over Peter Dutton in the second round of voting, trails the ALP in the run up to the general election in May.
Asked on Monday night if she stood by her comments on Sunday, Bishop said she was "just speaking the truth."
"The reason I stood was because I believed I had support and I could beat the opposition," she told reporters.
Bishop was a leading moderate in the LNP and a strong supporter of former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, whose downfall as leader of the party triggered August's ballot.
Her retirement announcement ended months of speculation about her future.
In her interview with The Sunday Times, Bishop said prior to the ballot, 28 colleagues had pledged their support. Instead, she got only 11 votes.
"Because I had been the party's deputy leader (for 11 years), I felt a responsibility to put my name forward," she said. "And I was confident that I could (beat Shorten)."
