Voter support for Australian government, PM Albanese growing ahead of election: Polls

According to the two new polls published on Friday and Saturday, Labor has extended its lead over the opposition Coalition and is set to win a second term in government in the May 3 election.

The first poll -- published on Friday by the Australian branch of UK market research firm YouGov -- found that Labor leads the Coalition 52.5-47.5 on a two-party preferred basis.

It represents Labor's largest lead over the Coalition in a YouGov poll in 18 months and marks a major turnaround from a 51-49 advantage for the opposition recorded late in February.

Forty-eight per cent of respondents to the poll chose Albanese as their preferred PM compared to 37 per cent for Coalition leader Peter Dutton. In February, Albanese led Dutton 42-40 as voters' preferred PM, according to YouGov.

The second poll, which was undertaken by market research firms RedBridge and Accent and published by News Corp Australia newspapers on Saturday, surveyed voters in 20 critical marginal seats on the East Coast and also recorded a 52.5-47.5 lead for Labor.

The same poll in early February recorded a 52-48 lead for the Coalition.

Labor won power in the 2022 election after nine years in opposition with a 52.13-47.87 edge over the Coalition on a two-party basis.

Victory for Labor on May 3 would make Albanese the first leader of either major party to win consecutive elections since 2004.

When Australians cast their votes in the election, they do so on a preferential basis. Every one of the 150 seats that will make up the lower house in the next parliament will be contested by at least four candidates in the election, with some having as many as 13 candidates.

The wide choice for voters means it is rare for any candidate to receive a clear majority of first preference votes. If no candidate receives at least 50 per cent of first preference votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and their votes are transferred based on preferences marked by voters.

The process continues until one candidate has a simple majority of votes. Friday's YouGov poll found that 32 per cent of voters intend to vote for Labor as their first preference and 33.5 per cent for the Coalition, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Coalition traditionally performs better than Labor on first preference votes but Labor fares better on preferences -- particularly from the Greens, Australia's third-largest party. Thirteen per cent of respondents to the YouGov poll said they intend to vote for the Greens.

At the 2022 election, Labor received 32.5 per cent of primary votes and the Coalition 35.7 percent, with the Greens at 12.2 per cent.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) on Friday said that a record 98.2 per cent of eligible Australians are enrolled to vote in the election. It said that the number of enrolled voters has increased by 870,000 since 2022 to over 18 million.

It is compulsory for Australians who have enrolled to vote in the general election.