Truss says hold WA poll ASAP DEPUTY Prime Minister Warren Truss says any fresh Senate election in Western Australia should be held as soon as possible. Mr Truss says a new poll would certainly carry many of the characteristics of a by-election. "If there is a new election and that will be a matter for the courts to decide, it needs to happen as quickly as possible," he told ABC television on Sunday. That way there would be as little distance as possible between the atmosphere and issues that decided the election in September and what would be on the table when a new poll is held, he said. After a protracted count, the Australian Electoral Commission finally declared the WA Senate result on Saturday. Because of the close result in the initial count, which gave the final two places to Labor and the Palmer United Party (PUP), there was a recount. That gave the final two spots to Greens Senator Scott Ludlam and Wayne Dropulich of the Australian Sports Party. But that recount didn't include 1375 missing votes and PUP head businessman Clive Palmer says he will launch a legal challenge to the result, likely to end with a fresh poll. Mr Truss said the situation was a debacle. "The whole event is a huge embarrassment for the Australian electoral system and we must make sure it doesn't happen again," he said. Independent senator Nick Xenophon has called on Mr Palmer to apologise for the "outrageous" statements he's made about the AEC. "If I've got a choice between a conspiracy theory and a stuff up, I'll go for the stuff up," he told Network Ten on Sunday. I don't think you can credibly say the integrity of the AEC is in question. He said the AEC was the "envy of the world." A re-election would be an extraordinary turn of events, Senator Xenophon said. Senator Xenophon said the only precedent anywhere in the world was the 2000 US Supreme Court case about hanging chads in Florida after the presidential election.