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07-02-2016, 10:14 AM
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Australians vote in cliffhanger election
Polling stations opened at 8:00 am (2200 GMT) with some 15.6 million electors taking part in a mandatory ballot across the huge country, with long queues as people made their choices. After an eight-week campaign, a Newspoll of 4,135 people published in The Australian newspaper showed Turnbull´s Liberal/National coalition 50.5 to 49.5 percent in front on a two-party basis, while a poll in the Sydney Morning Herald had them in a dead heat. Shorten´s Labor needs to pick up at least 19 seats in the 150-seat parliament to secure the 76 it needs to govern in its own right. The coalition, which headed into the election with a comfortable majority, can afford to lose as many as 13 seats and still hold power and has the backing of the nation´s powerful media, which has cited the need for stability. But polls are also forecasting large numbers of people voting for the Greens or other mi**r parties and independents, which raises the prospect of a hung parliament where ** side commands a lower house majority. Multi-millionaire former banker Turnbull, 61, is looking to bolster his power after ousting fellow Liberal Tony Abbott in a party coup last September and cast his vote at a school near his Sydney harbourside mansion. Ex-union chief Shorten, 49, is gunning to return Labor to ****** after it was thumped by the conservatives at the last election in 2013, and was due to vote in his Melbourne constituency later Saturday. "What will decide this election is what is in the best interests for working and middle class Australia," he said in a last-ditch bid to rally undecided voters to his platform of better health, jobs and education. Turnbull has campaigned on tough asylum-seeker policies, a plan to hold a plebiscite on gay marriage, and his eco**mic credentials as the country transitions from a mining investment boom and focuses on job creation and diversifying. He has also channelled the instability sparked by Britain´s shock vote to leave the European Union, warning Australia must "have the plan that meets the nature of our times, a time of opportunity and of challenge". Turnbull called an election early because crossbenchers -- politicians who are independent or from mi**r parties -- hold the balance of power in the upper house Senate. They have failed to pass deadlocked legislation to overhaul unions, which provided the trigger for a double dissolution of parliament, where all seats in the upper and lower houses are contested. But some experts are suggesting the upper house could end up with more crossbenchers after the election than before, as voters fed up with traditional politicians look for alternatives. Most polls close at 6:00 pm (0800 GMT) Sydney time with the remainder two hours later due to time differences in a country where people overwhelmingly abide by their obligation to vote. أكثر... 
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