JOB VACANCY PRAPATAN CELL GAJI TINGGI

US Republicans are increasingly optimistic they will win the House of Representatives, as votes are counted from Tuesday's midterm elections.

The BBC's US partner CBS News says the lower chamber of Congress is leaning towards the Republicans.

But the battle for the Senate is up in the air with key races still rated as toss-ups.

Though President Joe Biden is not on the ballot on Tuesday, the midterms will shape the fate of his agenda.

Voting stations are closing in time zones across the US, with exit polls suggesting the main issues for voters were inflation and abortion.

Some 32% of voters cited rising prices as most important, while 27% rated abortion as their priority, according to the Edison research data.

The emphasis on abortion could buoy Democrats, who have used the issue to get out the vote.

All 435 seats in the House and a third of the Senate are up for grabs.

Republicans have been widely expected to pick up the five seats they need to control the House.

Which party holds sway in the Senate is likely to come down to a handful of neck-and-neck races in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, and those results might not be known for days.

Despite delivering on promises to lower prescription drug prices, expand clean energy and revamp US infrastructure, Mr Biden's popularity has taken a pummelling amid the worst inflation in four decades.

But Republicans have their own political vulnerability on the issue of abortion following the conservative-dominated Supreme Court's decision this year to roll back a US constitutional right to the procedure.

The ruling triggered a swathe of restrictions on abortion in Republican-led states, energising liberal voters around the country and raising hopes among Democrats they might defy the historical political gravity that typically weighs on a governing party in the midterms.

Five US states held referendums about abortion on Tuesday, mostly to protect access to the procedure.

According to exit polls by the BBC's US partner CBS News, abortion was the top issue for Democratic voters, while Republicans and independents rated inflation as their top issue.

Nearly eight in 10 voters in the CBS exit poll said inflation had been a hardship for them, including about 20% who rated that hardship as severe.

Nearly half of voters said their financial situation was worse than it was two years ago - more than twice the number who thought it was better.