Australia’s election starts with early voting, and PM Albanese’s party has a slim lead

The Australian election’s early voting started Tuesday, with the center-left Labor party, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, leading the conservative opposition coalition by a narrow margin.

As many as half of eligible Australians will vote before the May 3 election date, according to figures from the nation’s electoral commission, thanks to a steady growth in early and postal voting.

The opposition Liberal Party leader, Peter Dutton, has been struggling to shrug off his perceived ideological ties to U.S. President Donald Trump, and his support has declined as voting gets underway.

A strategy that would have obliged federal government employees to return to work full-time while eliminating tens of thousands of public sector jobs was forced to be dropped by Dutton, who was criticized for drawing inspiration from Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was established by Elon Musk.

As recently as January, Albanese was trailing Dutton’s conservative alliance by six points in the polls; late this month, the advantage had grown to nine points.

The country’s preferential voting method, in which voters rank their choices, redistributes votes from smaller parties, giving Labor a four-point advantage over the opposition, according to Newspoll polling released on Sunday.

Albanese told a press conference on Monday, “I assure you that my camp is not complacent.”

“This election is certainly up for grabs.”

He brought up the 2019 federal election, which Liberal leader Scott Morrison ultimately won, even though some bookmakers had already paid out on a Labor victory.

Election campaigning is expected to be muted Tuesday in the wake of Pope Francis’s passing. Voting is mandatory for Australians aged 18 and up.

Tuesday night will be the third and final televised election debate between Dutton and Albanese.