It was a lopsided victory for Julia Gillard, who handily beat Kevin Rudd 71 to 31 for the leadership post in the Australian Labor Party on Monday morning. With the votes, Gillard would also retain her position as prime minister.

The results of the ALP ballot end a weekend of political infighting in the Labor Party in which Rudd announced his resignation from his post as foreign minister on Thursday and returned the next day to Australia to challenge Gillard for the top ALP post.

Among those who supported Rudd were five Cabinet members - Anthony Albanese, Martin Ferguson, Chris Bowen, Robert McClelland and Kim Carr.

Prior to his loss, the former foreign mMinister warned of a second round of character assassination against him, but Gillard assured that the party will be united after the vote and ministers will not be punished for supporting Rudd.

"I do not want to see continued commentary of these kinds of matter after Monday," the prime minister was quoted by The Sydney Morning Herald.

Despite his loss, Rudd gained more in popularity based on a 1,950 per cent growth in the number of Google searches for his name, while his opponent had a 160 per cent surge only.

The ALP leadership ballot has spawned betting with the largest placed at Sportsbet at $300,000 for a Gillard win at $1.11 odds, while Rudd's odds to win was at $10. With the results out, the punter earned $30,000.

Another bet was on the attire of the two candidates. The odds of Rudd wearing a black tie was placed at $3.25, while the odds of Gillard wearing a white jacket was at $4 and a pink jacket at $13.

Gillard was at the Country Labor Conference in Cessnock and then headed for Melbourne over the weekend. Rudd was at Griffith in Brisbane. On Saturday, he walked through the Queen Street Mall and then attended church service in Bulimba with his wife, Theresa Rein.

"Everyone in politics is human, and whatever your political differences are it affects your family and your loved ones around you. And I wouldn't be able to do anything I have done in public life if not for the support of (Theresa)," The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Rudd.

The ALP leadership ballot was participated in by 102 Labor MPs. NSW MP Chris Hayes bought the ballot box into the meeting room at 9:58 a.m. Rudd arrived with 12 MPs, including Carr, Ferguson and Bowen. Gillard arrived with 10 MPs and ministers, who included Nicola Roxon and Craig Emerson.

Prior to the casting of ballots, Gillard was the heavy favourite to win with estimates of 68 votes in her favour versus an estimated 30 for Rudd.

"If Julia Gillard wins today and we end up in the same position as we are now, in terms of the polls, in several months' time, then my view is the same people who installed Julia Gillard will be looking for a candidate to replace Julia Gillard," Rudd told ABC Radio, although he assured that he will not start another challenge to Gillard and will just remain in the backbench.

With the ALP leadership ballot finally over, all eyes now are on the election if Gillard could repeat her easy victory against Rudd with Opposition Leader Tony Abbott who has threatened to reverse the government's carbon tax if he wins. Experts said the markets would not even react to the ALP leadership result.

The Business Council of Australia, in a statement, said with the ALP ballot done, it is now time for the federal government to get back to the job with renewed vigour. The council pointed out that the leadership issue was a distraction for government and affected parliament, business and the broader Australian community during a period when the country should have focused on the challenges and opportunities before it.

"With an increasing volatile and uncertain global economy and the challenges of economic transition at home we cannot afford to be complacent or diverted from doing what needs to be done to build the strength of our economy for the long term," BCA President Tony Shepherd said.

"Without stability, we cannot get on with important policy reform. We need stability to provide confidence our economy is being well managed, and we need stability to maintain Australia's international reputation as a reliable and predictable place to invest and do business," he added.

Shepherd said Australian businesses are ready to work with government to come up with a detailed plan to boost the country's productivity and competitiveness.