Search continues for a sign to guide vote

Whether or not we know by next Sunday morning who that government will be depends, of course, on the closeness of the ballot.

There have been plenty of elections in my lifetime where the result is obvious almost as soon as the first votes on the eastern seaboard are counted.

This does not feel like one of those elections.

Six days out from polling day, this feels to me like being a close election, complicated by the potential for independents to claim a couple of key seats.

Those who have voted early, or at least made up their mind which box on the green form will receive a number 1 in it, can switch off from what has been a pretty uninspiring campaign.

But for those who are undecided - some 12 to 14 per cent, according to one estimate I read recently - they will be looking for a sign to guide their decision-making.

Will that sign come in the form of a particular policy, or an embarrassing gaffe, or a rousing speech, or a jaw-dropping scandal?

Will these undecideds vote for a candidate based on local issues, or will they have party leaders in mind?

I've heard of people changing their vote at the last-minute because they didn't like the look of a person handing out a candidate's how-to-vote cards at the polling place!

Ultimately, though, we each get one vote and the reasons why it is cast for one candidate over all others are not read out on election night.

Various polls - and the bookies - indicate that Labor will win on Saturday and end nine years of Coalition rule.

But, as they say in politics, the only poll that matters is on election day.

We wait with bated breath to see which party the voting public will entrust with governing for the next three years.

All the best for the week ahead,

Ross Tyson, editor