Australia is voting today in a cliffhanger general election with the conservative Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, hoping his hard line against boat people will win him a third term.
Polls opened at 8 a.m. (9 p.m. Irish time last night). Mr Howard cast himself in the role of a leader in times of trouble in an eve-of-election interview.
A renowned political stayer, he said the campaign had been held against an unusual backdrop of economic uncertainty and security fears heightened by the devastating September 11th attacks in the US.
"We are heading into rather more difficult economic circumstances and that is one of the reasons why a government such as mine, with a good track record of managing the economy, is better for the country over the next few years," he said.
The polls close at 6 p.m. across the nation, with polling stations in the west closing later (10 a.m. Irish time) than those in the east because of a three-hour time difference.
First exit polls are expected soon after polling ends in the west, with the result emerging late in the evening or overnight.
Mr Howard's popularity has surged since August.
By blocking access to a rising tide of mainly Middle Eastern and Afghan asylum seekers arriving by boat, he has emerged as the preferred leader of many Australians. But in the same opinion polls, his Liberal/National government and the Labor opposition remain neck-and-neck.
With the boat people issue dominating the campaign and back in the spotlight yesterday when two women drowned in a desperate bid to reach Australia, the Labor leader, Mr Kim Beazley, has struggled to focus attention on his agenda of domestic affairs.
The 12.6 million voters go to the ballot box with opinion polls mixed, despite centre-left Labor needing only a 0.8 per cent swing nationally to seize power and a raft of marginal seats.
Gamblers have their money on Mr Howard (62). Centrebet bookie, Mr Gerard Daffy, says the latest odds pay A$1.65 on a A$1 bet on his five-year-old government compared to A$2.10 for a similar wager on Labor.
Mr Beazley (52) said he had not considered life after an election loss, despite growing sentiment that Labor faces an uphill fight.
"We were in a very difficult situation when this campaign began. We were the underdogs then and we probably are still the underdogs now, but we are going to fight down to the last vote and the last minute of the last day," he said.
Australian newspapers, with only one or two minor exceptions, backed Mr Howard. "Against a background of burgeoning war and global economic instability, the safer choice is the return of the Howard government," a Sydney Morning Herald editorial said yesterday.
Mr Howard made a final appeal to the estimated one million undecided voters to play it safe, arguing he was the better leader in times of global uncertainty to protect Australia's borders and manage the tightening economy.
He received strong public support when he committed Australian troops to joining the US-led war against terrorism.