In Australia, polling booths open around the country at 8:00am on Saturday for the General election. But there have already been a record number of early votes. About 1.8 million people have already cast their ballots, which is nearly 2 lakh fifty thousand more than the last federal election. The Australian Electoral Commission says there has also been a jump in the number of postal votes. It involves extra work for the AEC because, under new legislation, many of those votes will be counted on election night. For the Prime Ministerial election, incumbent Julia Gillard is tied with coalition challenger Tony Abbott. Gillard is the candidate of the left-of-centre Labor Party while Abbott represents a conservative coalition.