Australian Elections Take The Stage

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – Vote counting has started in Australia’s election that will decide whether Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s conservative government can defy odds and rule for a fourth three-year term. Opposition leader Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor Party is a favorite to win its first election on Saturday since 2007. But Morrison defied the opinion polls in 2019 by leading his coalition to a narrow victory. The closely watched Newspoll published in The Australian newspaper on Saturday put Labor ahead with 53% of voter support. The split of votes between the government and Labor in 2019 was 51.5% to 48.5%. That’s the exact opposite of the result that Australia’s five most prominent polls including Newspoll had predicted.