Australia election 2022: Clive Palmer could help Scott Morrison cling on, destroy Anthony Albanese

Scott Morrison could still cling to power thanks to the preferences of Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party in key constituencies – despite the mining tycoon battling both the Liberal and Labor parties.

The mining billionaire’s United Australia Party will tell voters to favor the Liberals and Nationals over Labor in several key House of Commons seats, the billionaire has revealed.

These include the NSW seats of Mackellar, Wentworth, Warringah, Reid, Parramatta Macquarie, Dobell and Hunter and the Queensland seat of Flynn.

Mr Palmer told Sky News on Monday night that he places preferences for the coalition over Labor in 55 per cent of the seats.

In the latest Newspoll, Labor leads the Coalition 54 points to 46 – enough to secure a comfortable majority when it is repeated on May 21.

But Labor strategists fear the UAP vote could be big and thwart the bill.

“Australia is a strange country. Who knows how many people will vote for Palmer,” an opposition strategist told Daily Mail Australia.

Maven Data data strategist Elisa Choy believes the UAP will have a major impact on this election based on her “big data” analysis of social media comments.

“The UAP is a relevant brand and a real contender to upset this election,” she said.

“UAP key messages freedom, end lockdowns, anti-government, anti-control successfully resonate.”

When asked who will become Prime Minister, she said: “Flip a coin at this stage. Because of this, Australia are still in a ‘bobble position’ and at this quiet moment in the dressing room, the last minute, the last second will matter.’

Under Australia’s full first-line electoral system, voters must rank all candidates running for their seat.

The parties recommend the order their supporters should follow by distributing the voting cards in the voting booths.

However, the UAP puts the Liberals last in some marginal seats like Greenway, Cook and Banks, and all 10 Liberal voters in WA, where Mr Palmer wants to oust all incumbents.

Mr Palmer has famously filed a legal suit against the state’s popular hard border during the Covid pandemic.

If a party receives less than half of the votes for a seat, the rankings are taken into account to ultimately determine the winner.

In the 2019 election, the UAP won 3 percent of the primary vote, but senior Liberals admitted the party helped the coalition by steering preferences away from Labour.

Mr Palmer has campaigned against lockdowns and vaccination mandates throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

Though he claims to love freedom, he has proposed radically restrictive economic policies, such as banning banks from raising mortgage rates above 3 percent and banning superfunds from investing abroad.

The mining tycoon, worth an estimated $13 billion, is spending about $70 million promoting this election — significantly more than the other parties.

Data released by the AEC in 2011 showed less than half of voters followed how to vote cards.

But still 70 percent of preferences met their recommended target because voters made up their own minds and their preferences happened to roughly match the voting map.