SA Lib leader wants new vote despite win

Martin Hamilton-Smith's future as leader of the South Australian opposition remains clouded.

After winning Saturday's Liberal Party leadership poll by just one vote, he says the signal such a narrow win sends to the public is not decisive enough.

So he has called for a second vote he hopes will provide a clearer outcome.

Any chance of an early end to internal party tensions and public speculation was lost when Mr Hamilton-Smith beat former deputy leader Vickie Chapman by 11 votes to 10.

One party member abstained from voting altogether.

"I am delighted to have won the vote today, but it is not good enough for me," Mr Hamilton-Smith told reporters on Saturday.

"I feel that the outcome is not clear enough."

While earlier reports suggested Mr Hamilton-Smith held 13 out of 22 votes in the days leading up to the ballot, Saturday's close call has turned whispers into cries of disunity.

"There are some people who need to make their minds up so we can move on, in the best interests of South Australia, with a clear direction for the future," Mr Hamilton-Smith said.

"What I want is a Liberal opposition which is strong, united and going forward."

Shadow attorney-general Isobel Redmond, who defeated opposition finance spokesman Steven Griffiths nine votes to five on Saturday in the race for deputy, said the party needed to come to a clear-cut decision to enable it to get back to the job it was hired to do.

"We have, indeed, a very real chance of coming through and stealing away the next election because this government has a lot to answer for ... we should be able to get ourselves focused enough for the next election," Ms Redmond told reporters.

Ongoing leadership debates and dissent are looking more likely of overshadowing the Liberals' March 2010 state election campaign, with senior party figures federal MP Christopher Pyne and former Howard government minister Alexander Downer having warned the state members to accept the outcome of Saturday's vote and move on.

Ms Chapman said she would again nominate as a candidate for the leadership.

"I take today's result as the party having spoken, but now that the leader has indicated that he is preparing to give notice of another meeting ... we do need to resolve this as quickly as possible," she said.

She said under party rules a second meeting must be held when the elected leader "feels unable to go on", but would not elaborate on her comment any further.

Mr Hamilton-Smith said he was yet to decide whether he would stand for the leader's position again.

"I would urge all Liberals over the coming week to speak to their MPs and make their view clear," he said.

The growing dissent over Mr Hamilton-Smith's performance as leader began several weeks ago when he presented to parliament documents accusing Mike Rann's Labor government of accepting illegal donations from a group with ties to the Church of Scientology.

The documents turned out to be forgeries and Mr Hamilton-Smith was forced to make a public apology.

Defamation action has since been lodged against him.

Falling popularity in the polls also prompted the resignation of the party's environment spokesman, Mitch Williams, from the frontbench last week.

The bickering has been a blessing for Mr Rann - just days before Mr Hamilton Smith went to parliament with his allegations, the premier was under considerable heat for appointing a road safety minister found to have a record of 60 driving offences.

The second leadership vote meeting is expected to be held on Wednesday.