Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced that the nation would go to the polls on September 14, saying she wanted to give ‘shape and order’ to the year. Australians usually know only weeks before when an election will be held, but the Labor leader, whose minority government holds power by only a narrow margin, surprised pundits by ending speculation and giving a date.
‘It should be clear to all which are the days of governing, and which are the days of campaigning’, Gillard said announcing the date of the polls. ‘It gives shape and order to the year, and enables it to be one not of fevered campaigning, but of cool and reasoned deliberation,’ she added.
