Australian Prime Minister may call general election next week

MELBOURNE: Australian Prime Minister John Howard could call a general election as early as Wednesday, a leading daily reported on Saturday.

Howard could announce a date for the poll on Wednesday and then allow Parliament to sit for the rest of the week and on Friday issue the electoral writs for an Oct 27 election, 'The Australian' quoted unnamed sources as saying.

For months, the two-week sitting of Parliament, after the APEC summit in Australia, has been expected to be the last sitting before an October or November election.

On Tuesday, after an opinion poll, Howard had said the election would be held ‘well before Christmas’.

In fact, according to the sources, the last week's opinion poll, which showed opposition Labour Party ahead, has affected the sentiment of the Liberal Party which sees the need to call an election earlier rather than later.

"Howard needs a circuit-breaker and waiting any longer can make the situation worse. We won't wait and I think Howard knows that. He has to bring it on," they said.

However, Ministers have dismissed suggestions that Howard, who is currently hosting the country's largest-ever gathering of world leaders at the APEC summit, would step down in favour of a substitute candidate because of the poor polling.

"I think that John Howard does a great job as Prime Minister and that is demonstrated by the results. I think the Australian public believe this country is heading in the right direction.”

"I think what is in the best interests of Australia is that we continue to pursue the same sort of economic and foreign policies which have given us such strength. (Howard's) leadership is in the best interests of the party," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer had said on Friday.