Nationwide voting opens for Australia's Indigenous Voice referendum

Source: Xinhua| 2023-10-14 11:22:45|Editor: huaxia

Voters walk towards a voting center in the Old Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Oct. 14, 2023. Polling booths across Australia have opened for the country's first referendum in the 21st century, with voters to decide on whether or not to establish an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

Millions of Australians will on Saturday vote "yes" or "no" on the proposal to alter the constitution to recognize the First Peoples of Australia by establishing the voice, which will advise the federal parliament on all issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. (Photo by Chu Chen/Xinhua)

CANBERRA, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Polling booths across Australia have opened for the country's first referendum in the 21st century, with voters to decide on whether or not to establish an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

In order for the constitution to be changed, the "yes" vote must secure a double majority, meaning that more than 50 percent voters nationally, as well as a majority in at least four out of Australia's six states, must vote in favor.

In a final pitch to voters on Friday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, an advocate for the voice since it was first proposed in 2017 and a leading figure in the "yes" campaign, said the referendum was an opportunity for Australia to "do better."

"We have an opportunity for Australians to do better. To do better to show respect for the first Australians, but to do something for ourselves, as well, because we will feel better. We will feel better about ourselves on Sunday with a Yes vote," he said at a press conference in South Australia.

According to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), 6.1 million voters had participated in early voting as of Friday and 2.1 million had applied for a postal vote, leaving 9.4 million people to cast their ballots on Saturday.

The latest edition of the Newspoll survey, published by News Corp Australia newspapers on Saturday, found that 37 percent of Australians intend to vote "yes."

It marks the highest level of support for the proposal measured by Newspoll since early September but remains significantly short of the 57 percent who said they intend to vote against it, with six percent of respondents undecided.

Despite the polling numbers, Albanese said he was still optimistic that a majority of Australians would embrace the "opportunity to make history" by voting "yes."

"I am very hopeful of a Yes vote this evening," he told reporters on Saturday.

"This is about respect for Indigenous Australians; it is about how we see ourselves as a nation, but it's also the way that the world sees us."

Speaking at a polling station in the Northern Territory, Aboriginal Senator Jacinta Price, a leading "no" campaigner, said that many Indigenous Australians do not "trust" the proposal.

Price, the federal opposition's spokesperson for Indigenous Australians, told Sky News Australia that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in remote areas were sick of being "exploited for the purpose of somebody else's agenda" but that she would accept the result of the vote.

"Whatever the outcome is, I have to respect that as that is what the Australian people want and work with that," she said.

The AEC personnel will start counting the votes as they close at 6 p.m. local time on Saturday.

According to the AEC, voting is mandatory for Australians aged 18 and over who are registered on the electoral roll (about 17.7 million people). ■

Billboards for Indigenous Voice referendum are placed in front of a voting center in the Old Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Oct. 14, 2023. Polling booths across Australia have opened for the country's first referendum in the 21st century, with voters to decide on whether or not to establish an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

(231014) -- SYDNEY, Oct. 14, 2023 (Xinhua) -- A billboard for Indigenous Voice referendum is placed at a polling booth in Sydney, Australia, Oct. 14, 2023. Polling booths across Australia have opened for the country's first referendum in the 21st century, with voters to decide on whether or not to establish an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

Voters walk out of a voting center in the Old Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Oct. 14, 2023. Polling booths across Australia have opened for the country's first referendum in the 21st century, with voters to decide on whether or not to establish an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.