Polling stations opened across Australia on Saturday in elections that are likely to deliver the nation’s sixth prime minister in as many years.

Opinion polls suggest the conservative Liberal Party-led coalition will lose its bid for a third three-year term and Scott Morrison will have had one of the shortest tenures as prime minister in the 118-year history of the Australian federation.

Morrison is the conservatives’ third prime minister since they were first elected in 2013.

He replaced Malcolm Turnbull in a leadership ballot of government colleagues in August.

The center-left Labor Party opposition under its leader Bill Shorten has been campaigning hard on more ambitious targets to reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions.

The government has committed Australia to reduce its emissions by 26% to 28% below 2005 levels by 2030.

Labor has promised a 45% reduction in the same time frame.

Morrison will vote in his Sydney seat on Saturday, and Shorten will vote in his Melbourne seat.

Polling on Australia's west coast began two hours after the east coast stations opened.

East coast stations will close at 6 p.m. (0800 GMT), two hours before voting ends in the west.