Australian PM, opposition leader make final pitch to voters on election eve

CANBERRA, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Australia's prime ministerial candidates have delivered their final pitch to voters on the eve of the country's general election.

Prior to election day on Saturday, incumbent Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, leader of the governing Labor Party, and opposition Coalition leader Peter Dutton both campaigned across the country on Friday in a bid to secure the support of voters.

Albanese visited the states of Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania as he aims to become the first leader of either major party to win consecutive elections since 2004.

Speaking at a press conference in Brisbane on Friday morning, Albanese said that the Coalition's campaign has shown that the conservative party is "just not ready" to form government.

"Australia deserves better and I'll give them better," he said.

Opinion polls unanimously predict that Labor will win a second term in power, although projections vary on whether the party will win a clear majority of the 150 seats in the lower house of parliament or if it will need to rely on the support of minor parties and independents to form a minority government.

Despite trailing in the polls, Dutton, who on Friday campaigned in South Australia and Western Australia, said he remains confident that he can win the election, invoking the 2019 election when the Coalition defied opinion polls to retain power.

"I think there will be some big surprises on election night," he told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.

In his final pitch to voters, Dutton pledged at a press conference in Western Australia that life would be "cheaper" for Australians under a Coalition government.

If neither Labor nor the Coalition wins a clear majority in the lower house where the government is formed, the left-wing Greens, Australia's third-largest political party, could hold the balance of power. The Greens enter the election holding four lower house seats.

According to data published by the Australian Electoral Commission on Friday, 5.6 million of Australia's 18 million registered voters had already cast their ballots at pre-poll locations across the country as of Thursday and an additional 1.5 million had returned postal ballots.

It marks the highest number of early votes cast at pre-poll locations in Australian history, surpassing the previous record set in 2022, with data for Friday, traditionally the biggest day for early voting, still to come.

Data released by the ABC on Friday from its ongoing Vote Compass survey revealed that respondents identified cost of living, the economy, government operations, climate change and housing as the most important election issues.

Over 90 percent of respondents agreed that it is more difficult for current young Australians to buy a home than it was for previous generations, and 49 percent said that Australia should accept many or somewhat fewer migrants, with 16 percent wanting a higher migrant intake.

The same survey in the lead-up to the 2022 election found that 49 percent of Australians said that the country should welcome many or somewhat more immigrants. ■