Australians start voting as Pope’s death overshadows election campaigning

Polling stations opened to voters who, for a variety of reasons, will be unable to vote on May 3. Around half the votes are expected to be cast before the election date.

Both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and opposition leader Peter Dutton cancelled campaign events planned for Tuesday out of respect for the late pontiff.

Flags were flown at half-mast from government buildings across the country, where a 2021 census found 20% of the population were Catholics.

Mr Albanese was raised as a Catholic but chose to be sworn in as prime minister when elected in 2022 by making a secular affirmation rather than by taking an oath on a Bible.

Mr Albanese, who has described himself as a “flawed Catholic”, attended a mass in honour of the Pope in Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral on Tuesday morning.

“I try not to talk about my faith in public,” Mr Albanese said.