Australia will go to the polls on Saturday in an election considered to be one of the tightest races in decades.

Julia Gillard, Australia's incumbent prime minister, faces the voters just over two months after a leadership coup made her the country's political leader. On June 24, she challenged the leadership of then-prime minister Kevin Rudd. With his support within his own party crumbling, and Labor's standing in opinion polls eroding, Rudd resigned without a fight and Gillard, his deputy, took over.

Whether voters will back Labor following its internal upheaval remains a question.

"The big strategic weakness in the Labor campaign has been the failure to satisfactorily explain the change of leader and I think that's certainly going to hurt Labor and Gillard in Queensland," said Australian National University political scientist Norman Abjorensen said. Queensland is Rudd's home state.

Gillard's chief rival is Tony Abbott, the leader of the centre-right Liberal Party since December 2009. Abbott served as a cabinet minister under former prime minister John Howard.

Immigration concerns

A number of issues are at the forefront of the campaign — including the economy — but immigration has been front and centre from the start.

Both the governing centre-left Labor Party and the Conservative opposition are promising to reduce immigration and bring in new measures to stop a steady flow of asylum-seekers arriving by boat.

A recent university study estimated that almost 50,000 people were living in Australia unlawfully, having either overstayed their visas or breached their conditions of entry into the country. During the same period, just over 1,000 asylum-seekers arrived by boat.

Outside a shopping centre in suburban Sydney, voters were divided over the issue of immigration.

"It seems the policies have softened over the last couple of years and we've just never had so many boats trying to get to Australia," an unidentified woman told reporter Phil Mercer.

"There isn't really enough jobs and stuff to support it but, at the same time, I think they should be allowed in because a lot of my friends are fresh off the boat and from planes and what not and they're lucky," a male student said. "They're trying to straighten out their lives in Australia and that's good that they can come here."

Voting begins in the eastern states at 6 p.m. Friday ET and polls close in the west of the country at 6 a.m. ET on Saturday.

With files from The Associated Press