(AFP) – Nov 23, 2007

SYDNEY (AFP) — Besieged Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Friday his government could still snatch election victory from the jaws of defeat, as a last-minute poll showed him narrowing the gap on rival Kevin Rudd.

Less than 12 hours before 13.5 million Australians head to the ballot box on Saturday in an election Howard has long been tipped to lose, a Newspoll survey showed his government halving the lead held by the opposition Labor Party.

The survey of around 2,600 people to be published in The Australian on Saturday still showed centre-left Labor ahead in support, but only by 52 percent compared to 48 for Howard's 11-year-old conservative government.

Pollsters said the survey, which came a week after a Newspoll showed former diplomat Rudd ahead by a winning eight-point lead, reflected a major shift in the key states of Queensland and Western Australia.

The survey mirrored the results of a Galaxy poll published earlier Friday that also showed Labor just four points ahead, raising the prospect that the election could be a cliffhanger rather than the predicted landslide.

Howard, 68, a wily and tenacious survivor, insisted his government could still win a fifth term despite a campaign beset with bad luck and claims of dirty tricks.

"I believe the coalition can win this election," Howard said from Queensland where he was making a last-ditch bid to convince voters it would be dangerous to oust his economic management team.

"I believe that there is a bit of a tide coming back. I sense it in the streets," he said.

The Newspoll and Galaxy surveys indicated that Labor was still in front, but that Howard's government was enjoying a last minute surge.

If accurate, the figures could mean that the result of the election would largely depend on how the parties fared in marginal seats, pollsters said.

However two other surveys Friday showed Howard's Liberal Party-led coalition heading for a clear defeat, reflecting the trend in more than 100 consecutive polls this year, while key newspapers also threw their support behind Rudd.

A Nielsen poll showed Australia's second-longest serving prime minister heading for a landslide defeat with 43 percent of support against 57 for Rudd, prompting the Sydney Morning Herald banner headline: "Howard needs a miracle."

If these figures were translated into votes, Labor would win an extra 46 parliamentary seats -- 30 more than the 16 it needs for victory -- including that held by Howard for the last 33 years.

A Morgan poll gave Labor 54.5 percent against 45.5 percent for the coalition.

Four key newspapers across the country meanwhile backed 50-year-old Rudd, including The Australian, a national broadsheet owned by global media mogul Rupert Murdoch, endorsing Labor for the first time since 1972.

"John Howard and his team have a proven track record but, to us, they have run out of energy," it said.

Howard's election campaign has been troubled as electors appeared tired of his government despite Australia's record economic growth, prosperity and low unemployment under his fiscally conservative watch.

Two weeks ago he was hit by an unwelcome rise in interest rates after being elected in 2004 on a pledge to keep rates down.

Then just two days before the election he became embroiled in allegations of race-based dirty tricks by senior members of his party who circulated fake Labor pamphlets linking that party to Islamic terrorism.

As Howard became increasingly short-tempered with reporters during the campaign, Rudd -- who has also styled himself as an economic conservative -- assumed a quiet self-confidence as he worked to portray Howard as out of touch.

"Where Mr Howard has lost touch with those working families is that he runs around the country telling people that the economy is strong," Rudd said Friday.

"At the same time, working families are saying that if the economy is going so well, why am I finding it so tough?" Rudd said, attributing Australia's economic growth to a mining and resources boom.

The key issues of the campaign have been the relative economic management skills of each party, whether to maintain Howard's unpopular new labour laws, climate change and whether to ratify the Kyoto protocol.

Despite their unpopularity in Australia, Howard aligned himself with US President George W. Bush's policies on the Iraq war and on climate change, policies that Rudd has pledged to reverse and which he says demonstrate that it is time for Howard to go.

But the prime minister, in his last press conference before the election, appealed to voters not to kick him out, repeating his mantra that change is economically risky.

"If you believe that our country is fundamentally heading in the right direction, you should not change the government," he said.

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