International News

SYDNEY, (APP/AFP) – Australians flocked to
vote in national elections Saturday with conservative leader Malcolm Turnbull appearing to have a slight edge over Labor’s Bill Shorten, culminating a marathon race where economic management has become a key issue in the wake of the Brexit vote.
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 minor parties and independents, which raises the prospect of a hung parliament where no side commands a lower house majority.