04 May 2016•Update: 04 May 2016
MELBOURNE, Australia
Australia’s prime minister confirmed Wednesday that he will dissolve parliament in coming days and call for an election to be held July 2.
“You don't have long to wait, you don't have long to wait,” Malcolm Turnbull told the Nine Network. “The election -- The Parliament will be dissolved and the election called before the 11th of May and the election will be on the 2nd of July.”
He refused to specify which day he would visit the governor-general to call for the early election, but did tell the Seven Network that “this weekend is looking pretty good I would say, 'yes'".
"I'm quietly confident that the Australian people will give us another term in government, but you can't take anything for granted and it's a two-horse race and it's a choice," Turnbull told Nine.
In mid-April, he had expressed his intention to request a "double-dissolution" -- the dissolving of both houses of Parliament and the calling of an election to resolve a deadlock -- after the 2016 budget was delivered May 3.
In an interview with news broadcaster ABC, the prime minister described the budget handed down Tuesday night as “not a short-term political budget” but a “long-term economic plan”.
Turnbull has been trying to get momentum back into the government and gain the "right to rule" upper hand over conservative colleagues who supported -- and still support -- former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who Turnbull ousted in September of last year.
