World Sep. 07, 2013 – 07:00AM JST ( )
SYDNEY —
Australians began voting in national elections Saturday with conservative challenger Tony Abbott heading for a thumping victory over Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
Polls opened at 8 a.m. with some 14.7 million electors taking part in a mandatory ballot across the huge country, with last-minute opinion polls showing Abbott on track for a landslide win.
A Newspoll published in The Australian Saturday put his Liberal/National coalition ahead 54 to 46% on a two-party basis, the same as a Nielson poll in the Sydney Morning Herald.
This represents a four percentage point swing since the last election in 2010.
The latest predictions have Labor losing anything from 14 to 32 seats in the 150-member lower House of Representatives with the conservatives set to claim a comfortable majority of over 90 seats.
(C) 2013 AFP
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