UPDATES LEAD
By Jill Fraser
MELBOURNE, Australia (AA) – Polls have closed at the end of Australia’s federal election, with around 15.6 million voters waiting to discover if Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s gamble to dissolve both houses of parliament has returned him to the nation’s top job.
A marathon eight week-long federal election campaign — peppered with promises, slogans, scare campaigns and gaffes — reached its climax Saturday with voters heading to the ballot box to have their say on politicians’ pledges and performances.
Turnbull’s governing coalition has been plugging “jobs and growth” and economic stability, off the back of the Britain’s Brexit result. The opposition Labor Party, meanwhile, has been warning voters that the Coalition will privatize the nation’s health system, Medicare, which Turnbull referred to on breakfast television Friday as “a disgraceful lie”.
Earlier Saturday, Newspoll, the country’s largest political poll of 4135 people, put the Liberal Party and National Party Coalition ahead by 50.5 percent to Labor’s 49.5 percent.
It showed that the coalition’s primary vote had dropped one point since the start of the week to 42 percent, a 3.6-point drop since the last election.
Labor’s primary vote is also down one point, to 35 percent, but up two points from the 2013 election, which was its worst performance in 82 years, The Weekend Australian — which exclusively published the poll — noted.
Political expert Nicholas Reece, senior adviser to former Labor Party Prime Minister Julia Gillard and director of the University of Melbourne’s Election Watch, told Anadolu Agency on Saturday that the number of triumphant independent candidates could again prove a “recipe for chaos in the next parliament”.
“Bookies [betting markets] are predicting that there will be at least 18 independents returned this parliament, which is the same number we’ve got at the moment,” he said in a phone interview.
One of the primary reasons Turnbull called a double-dissolution election, which dissolved both houses of parliament, and subjected the Australian electorate to 55 days of electioneering, was to attempt to wipe out the micro-parties and independents, who continuously frustrated the government by blocking legislation.
But the move appeared to have backfired, as a double dissolution results in a full senate election, which nearly halves the quota required for a Senator to be elected. The lower quota makes it easier for minor parties and independents to win election.
“Apart from the quota issue, polls are showing support for independents and minor parties at record levels… The Newspoll shows that the minor party and independent vote is on 23 percent,” Reese said, calling it “an all time record.”
Reece cited a number of reasons why Australians on both the left and the right are dissatisfied with the two main parties and turning to independents and minor parties.
“They’re angry because the main two parties are no longer reflecting their views regarding a multitude of issues, including immigration and climate change. Plus there’s a general dissatisfaction with the political system,” he said, adding that the situation was similar to the phenomenon driving the Donald Trump vote in America and Brexit in the UK
“There’s a growing sense that politics is about insiders and outsiders and that there’s a political class running the system and everyone else is outside it and that’s not working anymore.”
Turnbull and Labor leader Bill Shorten were both making their final pitches to undecided voters as people were casting their votes Saturday.
The neck-and-neck race will be decided by the nation’s most marginal seats due to a consistent number of people voting for one or other of the main two parties, which leaves a small percentage of swinging voters in a handful of seats.
