Voting begins in Australian remote areas
Vote for me: Australian Prime Minister John Howard (C) and wife Janette (L) are welcomed to the Government's election campaign launch in Brisbane.Picture:AFP
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
VOTERS cast the first ballots in Australia's elections yesterday as a new opinion poll showed conservative Prime Minister John Howard heading for a landslide defeat.
The ballots were registered in a tiny outback community as mobile polling teams headed across the vast country to cater for voters in remote areas ahead of election day on November 24.
The votes cast by scores of Aborigines at Kybrook Farm south of Darwin marked the start of early voting for those unable to make it to polling stations on election day and for Australians abroad.
The first to cast a ballot, George Huddlestone, said he had voted for Howard in the last election in 2003 but objected to the government's move this year to seize control of remote Aboriginal communities.
"I voted Liberal last time but Howard, he's changed the rules on us," Huddlestone told the national AAP news agency. "Some things are changing and people are worried for their families, they don't like the changes."
Huddlestone said he hoped Labor leader Kevin Rudd would win the election "and things can go back to normal."
The ballot boxes will remain sealed until the polls close and counting starts, but a series of opinion polls suggest the result is clear cut and the government will be ousted after nearly 12 years in power.
The latest poll, published yesterday, showed Labor had gained two percentage points over the past week to extend its lead over Howard's Liberal-National coalition to 55 percent against 45 percent.
The Newspoll was taken just days after mortgage-belt voters were hit with the sixth hike in interest rates since Howard won the last election in 2004 with a promise to keep rates low. Howard launched the final, official leg of his party's campaign for re-election with a pledge of a major package of assistance to first-home buyers.
AFP
The ballots were registered in a tiny outback community as mobile polling teams headed across the vast country to cater for voters in remote areas ahead of election day on November 24.
The votes cast by scores of Aborigines at Kybrook Farm south of Darwin marked the start of early voting for those unable to make it to polling stations on election day and for Australians abroad.
The first to cast a ballot, George Huddlestone, said he had voted for Howard in the last election in 2003 but objected to the government's move this year to seize control of remote Aboriginal communities.
"I voted Liberal last time but Howard, he's changed the rules on us," Huddlestone told the national AAP news agency. "Some things are changing and people are worried for their families, they don't like the changes."
Huddlestone said he hoped Labor leader Kevin Rudd would win the election "and things can go back to normal."
The ballot boxes will remain sealed until the polls close and counting starts, but a series of opinion polls suggest the result is clear cut and the government will be ousted after nearly 12 years in power.
The latest poll, published yesterday, showed Labor had gained two percentage points over the past week to extend its lead over Howard's Liberal-National coalition to 55 percent against 45 percent.
The Newspoll was taken just days after mortgage-belt voters were hit with the sixth hike in interest rates since Howard won the last election in 2004 with a promise to keep rates low. Howard launched the final, official leg of his party's campaign for re-election with a pledge of a major package of assistance to first-home buyers.
AFP
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