Australia

Polls open in Australian election; opposition tipped to win

Associated Press
Published | Updated

Australian Labor Party leader Bill Shorten, right, pauses after placing a floral tribute to the late former Australian Prime Minster Bob Hawke at the Opera House in Sydney, Friday, May 17, 2019. A federal election will be held in Australian on Saturday May 18, 2019. (Lukas Coch/AAP Image via AP)

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, center, meets with a family saving for their first home in Cairns, Australia Friday, May 17, 2019. A federal election will be held in Australian on Saturday May 18, 2019. (Mick Tsikas/AAP Image via AP)

Polling stations have opened in eastern Australia in elections that are likely to deliver the nation's sixth prime minister in as many years.

Opinion polls suggest the conservative Liberal Party-led coalition will lose its bid for a third three-year term at the election on Saturday and Scott Morrison will have had one of the shortest tenures as prime minister in the 118-year history of the Australian federation.

Morrison is the conservatives' third prime minister since they were first elected in 2013. He replaced Malcolm Turnbull in a leadership ballot of government colleagues in August.

The center-left Labor Party opposition under its leader Bill Shorten has been campaigning hard on more ambitious targets to reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions.