Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese looks set to secure a second term in office, media networks project, with voters choosing stability over change against a backdrop of global turmoil inflicted by a returning US President Donald Trump.
Albanese’s Labor Party needs at least 76 of 150 lower-house seats to win a majority, and while votes were still being counted, early swings towards Labor suggested the party would retain government, according to projections from national broadcaster the ABC.
Albanese won re-election but it is unclear yet if he has a majority, local networks say based on early vote counts. Early results suggest Albanese of the Australian Labor Party benefited from swings across the country away from Peter Dutton’s Liberal-National Coalition. Cost of living, crumbling public healthcareand unaffordable housing were key issues, as was an unpredictable Trump presidency. A range of independents and candidates from the left-wing Greens, could determine the final make-up of the government in case of a hung parliament.
ABC declared his Liberal-National coalition had lost the election, and now they say Dutton has lost his seat of Dickson, in Brisbane, to Labor’s Ali France.
Dutton’s campaign wasn’t smooth, the general feeling was he didn’t offer enough substance in his policies to convince people of a change – especially at a time when the world is being shaken up, voters perhaps playing it safe with the politician they know.
CNN affiliate Sky News reported that there was no path to a majority for the Coalition, made up of Peter Dutton’s Liberal Party and the Australian National Party.
Australia’s projected return of a left-leaning government follows Canada’s similar sharp swing towards Mark Carney’s Liberal Party earlier this week.
A victory on Saturday would make Albanese the first Australian Prime Minister to win re-election for two decades, since John Howard in 2004.
By Agencies
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