Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Election details

Updated at 12:40 pm on 21 August 2010

First results in the Australian election are expected from 6:30pm (AEST) on Saturday.

Voting began at 8am (local time) and ends at 6pm. All 150 lower house seats and half of the Senate's 76 seats are up for grabs.

Eleven million people are expected to vote. There are 7700 polling stations.

Voting is compulsory in Australia.

About 1.8 million people have already cast their ballots, which is almost 250,000 more early votes than the last federal election.

The Electoral Commission says counting of postal, provisional, absent and overseas votes will begin on Monday.

The Coalition needs to win 17 seats to form a government in its own right.

Queensland could hold the key to the outcome. The state has 30 seats in the House of Representative and 16 of those are held by a margin of less than 5%.

Copyright © 2010, Radio New Zealand