Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Australia on January 31, 2013, gave an unprecedented advance notice of a Federal Parliamentary election date. She set it at September 14,2013, presumably giving the long lead time to stave off a power struggle within her own Australian Labor Party (ALP), given the Party's poor standing in opinion polls. But the long lead-time may only have precipitated the anticipated attempted putsch against her by members of her own party, convinced that she is the main handicap to the re-election of an ALP-led Government. By early March 2013, a number of factions were maneuvering to stage a leadership vote within the Parliamentary Labor Party (the group of elected Labor members of Parliament who can vote for a leader).
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