WA: WA Liberals capable of unlikely election victory - Westpoll

AAP General News (Australia)
08-16-2008
WA: WA Liberals capable of unlikely election victory - Westpoll

PERTH, Aug 16 AAP - The Liberal Party is capable of achieving an unlikely victory in
the West Australian election while its new leader is closing the gap on Premier Alan Carpenter,
a new poll shows.

A Westpoll of five key marginal seats, published in today's The West Australian, has
the Liberals leading in four seats and in a dead heat with Labor in the fifth.

But the election is still too close to call, the newspaper says, with Labor maintaining
a 0.4 percentage point lead over the Liberals on a two-party-preferred basis, according
to the overall state voting intention.

Despite the close result in the marginal seats, Labor had a commanding lead in voter
confidence, with 64 per cent of those surveyed saying they expected the government to
be returned.

The Liberals' decision to replace Troy Buswell with Colin Barnett as opposition leader
appears to have paid off, with Mr Barnett moving to within 13 percentage points of Mr
Carpenter as preferred premier.

A month ago Mr Carpenter led Mr Buswell 57 percentage points to 12 points, but this
week's poll had support for Mr Carpenter on 44 points, ahead of Mr Barnett on 31 points.

The Westpoll surveyed 400 people in the five marginal seats, four in the metropolitan
area and one in the new South-West seat of Collie-Preston.

The newspaper said minor parties, in particular the Greens and the Nationals, could
hold the key to a number of seats.

Pollster Keith Patterson said the two-party-preferred statewide vote would be reversed
if the Liberals and Nationals agreed to a coalition.

But he said the disparity between those who said they would vote Liberal and those
who believed Labor would win the election should have conservatives supporters worried.

AAP mn/rs

KEYWORD: POLLWA WESTPOLL DAYLEAD

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