MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull requested the United Kingdom’s Queen Elizabeth II’s representative to dissolve both houses of parliament and call elections on July 2, he said at a press conference Sunday.
"The governor-general has accepted my advice to dissolve both houses of parliament effective tomorrow…and call the election on July 2," Turnbull said in televised a press conference after visiting Peter Cosgrove approximately an hour earlier.
The Australian constitution envisages a mechanism, known as the double dissolution, which empowers the government to call for an election if the Senate blocks a piece of legislation twice. Turnbull said in late March that voting to elect lawmakers in Australia would be held on July 2 if the current parliament failed to pass two union bills.
The next federal elections are due to be held in Australia before the start of 2017.
