Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese looks set to secure a second term in office, media networks project, with voters choosing stability over change against a backdrop of global turmoil inflicted by a returning US President Donald Trump.
Albanese’s Labor Party needs at least 76 of 150 lower-house seats to win a majority, and while votes were still being counted, early swings towards Labor suggested the party would retain government, according to projections from national broadcaster the ABC.
Australia’s projected return of a left-leaning government follows Canada’s similar sharp swing towards Mark Carney’s Liberal Party earlier this week.
A victory on Saturday would make Albanese the first Australian Prime Minister to win re-election for two decades, since John Howard in 2004.