Snapshot of Australia's election

SYDNEY - Australians will vote Saturday in a general election pitting conservative Prime Minister John Howard against opposition Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd.
Here is a snapshot of the election's key elements:

-- 13.5 million of Australia's 21 million people are registered to vote

-- Voting is compulsory in Australia

-- Votes will be cast for all 150 seats of the lower House of Representatives

-- 40 of the 76 seats in the upper house, the Senate, are up for grabs

-- The poll pits Howard's Liberal-National party coalition against Labor

-- Howard, an MP for the past 33 years, is hoping to win a fifth and final term after 11 years in office

-- Centre-left Rudd is aiming for the country's leadership for the first time after nine years in parliament

-- Candidates are vying for 1,421 seats

-- Electorates are as diverse as inner Sydney's 26 square kilometer Wentworth, with 84,000 voters, to West Australia's Kalgoorlie, which covers 2.2 million square kilometers (880,000 square miles) -- nearly 10 times the size of Britain, making it the biggest constituency in the world.

-- Key issues: maintaining economic growth, labour laws, climate change, Iraq war, desire for change after 11 years of the same leadership.

11/23/2007 02:27 GMT