{"id":3763,"date":"2025-04-22T17:42:46","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T21:42:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/?p=3763"},"modified":"2025-04-22T17:42:47","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T21:42:47","slug":"australians-start-voting-in-general-elections-as-popes-death-overshadows-campaigning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/?p=3763","title":{"rendered":"Australians start voting in general elections as pope\u2019s death overshadows campaigning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Australians began voting Tuesday in general elections<\/a> as the death of Pope Francis<\/a> led to a cancellation of campaign events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polling stations opened to voters who, for a variety of reasons, will be unable to vote on May 3. Around half the votes are expected to be cast before then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese<\/a> and opposition leader Peter Dutton<\/a> canceled events out of respect for the late pontiff. Flags were flown at half-staff at government buildings across the country, where a 2021 census found 20% of the population was Catholic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Albanese, who has described himself as a \u201cflawed Catholic,\u201d attended Mass in honor of the pope in Melbourne\u2019s St. Patrick\u2019s Cathedral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI try not to talk about my faith in public,\u201d he said. \u201cAt times like this, I think what people do is, they draw on who they are, and certainly my Catholicism is just a part of me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dutton, raised by a Catholic father and Protestant mother, attended Mass at Sydney\u2019s St. Mary\u2019s Cathedral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s a day for overt politicking at all. I think that the day is best spent reflecting,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s a place for the body blows of politics today. I think it\u2019s a very different day from that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Albanese and Dutton, who leads the conservative Liberal Party, met in Sydney Tuesday night for the third televised leaders\u2019 debate<\/a> of the campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dutton accused Albanese of being a \u201cweak leader\u201d who was \u201cloose with the truth\u201d during the hour-long debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Albanese told Dutton: \u201cYou can go to personal abuse; that\u2019s a sign of desperation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A fourth debate is planned Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Albanese\u2019s center-left Labor Party is seeking a second three-year term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government held a narrow majority of 78 seats out of 151 in the House of Representatives, where parties form administrations during their first term. The lower chamber will shrink to 150 seats after the election due to redistributions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The major parties are both predicting a close election result.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Australians began voting Tu […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3763"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3765,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3763\/revisions\/3765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}