(Photo: Xinhua/Reuters)

    CANBERRA, Oct. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- Polls are underway in Australia for the federal election on Saturday as both Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition Leader Mark Latham cast their votes.

    Howard cast his vote at Putney Public School in his Sydney seatof Bennelonga and Latham cast his vote at Ingleburn Public School in his south-western Sydney seat of Werriwa.

    More than 13 million eligible voters are due to cast their votes at 7,700 polling booths nationwide.

    A total of 1,091 candidates are standing for all 150 seats in the House of Representatives and 330 candidates for half of the 76seats in the Senate.

    The party or coalition which wins more than half of the seats in the House of Representatives will form the new government.

    The voting trend is expected to be clear on late Saturday unless the election is too close to know the result.

    Meanwhile, two latest opinion polls published on newspapers Saturday are at odds on who will win the election.

    The Newspoll, published on The Weekend Australian newspaper Saturday, showed that each of the ruling coalition and Australian Labor Party won 50 percent of support on a two-party-preferred basis.

    But in the ACNielsen poll, also published on newspapers Saturday, the coalition had a lead of 54 percent to 46 percent on a two-party-preferred basis.

    The coalition won 49 percent of primary votes, compared with Labor's 37 percent, according to the ACNielsen poll.

    The Newspoll showed 51 percent of respondents said Prime Minister John Howard would be a better prime minister while 36 percent chose Labor Leader Mark Latham.

    In the ACNielsen poll, 53 percent of voters chose Howard as preferred prime minister, compared with Latham's 39 percent support. Enditem