Australians, dressed in swimming costumes and armed with what is known locally as a “democracy sausage”, showed up to vote in a national election on Saturday (May 21), with opinion polls showing the opposition Labor Party narrowly ahead of the ruling conservative coalition.
People stood in lines outside voting centres in Sydney to buy grilled sausage sandwiches, colloquially known as the “democracy sausage”, as per Australian election tradition to fundraise for local clubs and encourage people to vote in person.
Center-left Labor held a decent lead going into the campaign after nine years in opposition, but recent polls showed Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Liberal-National government narrowing the gap in the final stretch of a tough, six-week campaign.
Voting is compulsory and initial results should be known by Saturday evening, although the Australian Electoral Commission has flagged a clear winner may not immediately emerge if it is a close contest due to the time required to count about 3 million postal votes.
(Production: Cordelia Hsu, Jill Gralow)