Crikey

Just when you began to suspect that this election campaign was lacking a little excitement, along comes the Crikey Election Tipping contest to liven things up.

And as if bragging rights for being the nation’s Top Election Tipster were not enough there’s a $5000 prize on offer for the winner.

And there is a serious forecasting purpose to our contest, too. We reckon the judgment of our politically savvy readership will be every bit as helpful as opinion pollsters in forecasting what the outcome will be in these key 20 seats.

We’ll be producing regular updates throughout the campaign on what our contestants think.

To help you get started, the Poll Bludger has prepared a form guide for the occasion with helpful notes on each electorate.

Plus, yours truly, while ineligible to officially enter, is happily acting like a racing page newspaper tipster with the following suggestions:

My experience with racing writer tipsters, I should caution, is that following them is a sure fire way to the poor house! Watching me make a fool of myself might just turn out to be another amusing sidelight to the contest.

Here’s how it works:

1. Tip the winner of the 20 most marginal electorates in Australia (read the form guide here).

2. Tie breaker question: tell us how many votes the winning candidate will receive in the seat of Bowman (Qld).

3. Tell us who you are and you’re done!

4. We’ll email you your selections so you can compete against your friends at your election party.

So go to it. Use your political skills and that $5000 could be yours.