Polls have opened for Australia's general election, with millions of voters expected to cast their ballots to decide the composition of the 48th federal parliament.

More than 7,000 polling places operated by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) opened across Australia at 8 a.m. on Saturday and will remain open until 6 p.m., when AEC staff will begin counting votes.

The governing center-left Labor Party, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, is seeking a second term in power, while the opposition conservative Coalition, led by Peter Dutton, is aiming to return to government, having previously held power from 1996 to 2007 and again from 2013 to 2022.

Voting is mandatory for more than 18 million Australian citizens aged 18 and over who are registered on the AEC's electoral roll. According to the AEC, a record-high 5.67 million people had voted at early voting centers as of Thursday, and an additional 1.52 million had returned postal ballots.

In addition to the thousands of polling places in Australia, the AEC is operating 111 overseas voting centers across 83 countries – more than at any previous election.