West Australia’s centre-left Labor party re-elected at state poll

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SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s Labor party secured re-election in Western Australia state on Saturday, as voters backed the party in a final political contest before Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese calls a national election due by mid May.

“It is a true honour to serve this beautiful State. And one I will never take for granted. Tomorrow, we get back to work. Thank you WA,” re-elected Western Australia Premier Roger Cook, a fellow Labor member, said on social media platform X on Sunday.

The conservative Liberal opposition failed to substantially weaken ruling centre-left Labor in its stronghold of Western Australia and put pressure on Albanese, who is looking to be re-elected as prime minister at the looming general election.

In its third consecutive election victory in Western Australia, Labor had so far won 40 seats compared with the Liberal party’s four with 61% of the vote counted, the Australian Broadcasting Corp said on Sunday.

Albanese, whose popularity has dipped nationally despite a slew of measures aimed to please families grappling with high living costs, said the Labor win in Western Australia, a vast resource-rich state, was an “extraordinary result”.

“I certainly congratulate my friend Roger Cook, the premier of Western Australia, on his resounding victory,” Albanese said in remarks televised from Canberra.

Labor won an unprecedented 53 out of 59 seats in the state parliament’s lower house in the previous election held in March 2021, riding high on its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the national election a year later, Labor increased its tally in the state to nine out of a total of 15 federal electorates.

(Reporting by Sam McKeith in Sydney; Editing by Marguerita Choy)