Queenslanders go to the polls on Saturday in the closest state election in a quarter of a century, with a hung parliament the most likely outcome.
Incumbent Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is taking on Liberal National Party leader Deb Frecklington in a bid to lead Queensland for another four years.
Key issues dominating the campaign have included COVID-19 border closures, economic management and law and order.
Ms Palaszczuk is aiming for a third term and could become the first woman party leader in Australian history to win three elections.
Ms Frecklington is vying to become the third female conservative elected to lead an Australian government and the second conservative voted Queensland premier in 34 years.
The Labor leader has consistently drubbed her rival as preferred premier in the polls, but the major parties have been consistently neck-and-neck on a two-party preferred basis.
The government has targeted opposition seats in the state's southeast, while the LNP wants to unseat Labor MPs in the regions and outer Brisbane.
Griffith University political scientist Paul Williams says the major party primary votes are locked at 37 per cent each.
He says crossbench MPs from Katter's Australian Party, the Greens and One Nation could decide the form of the next government.
"What can you say? I mean there's nothing more that can be said. It's too close," Dr Williams told AAP.
"No one could know with certainty. I mean it could be a couple hundred votes in it."
In recent days, both Labor and LNP staffers have told AAP they're preparing for a close result.
University of Queensland political scientist Glenn Kefford said neither side had a strong feeling they would be able to form a majority government.
It would be a challenge for the LNP to pick up the nine seats it needs for a majority, but Labor could form a minority government.
"Because of the really regionalised nature of what the swings are potentially going to look like, that's going to make it really hard to know how the major parties are going to be able to piece together a coalition to form government," Dr Kefford told AAP.
The campaign has been defined as a referendum on COVID-19 management and border closures, the economic recovery and crime-fighting in Townsville and Cairns.
"It's arithmetic: will the gratitude vote outnumber an angry cohort wanting change over border closures, economic damage to small business and perhaps law and order?" Dr Williams said.
"We just don't know."
The election has been almost presidential in style with both parties pitching their leaders as figureheads.
Ms Palaszczuk has an advantage because she has led Ms Frecklington as preferred premier in the polls since the beginning of the year.
Dr Williams said there's no overwhelming love for either Labor or the LNP in Queensland, but voters respect the current premier more.
"There doesn't seem to be respect across the board for Ms Frecklington," he said.
Dr Kefford said the LNP had worked hard to present Ms Frecklington as a visionary leader with an ambitious plan.
However, that may not be enough to convince voters to change the status quo during a pandemic.
"That's something that's been missing in the LNP campaign and maybe it's something that just could never actually materialise based on the feeling around the pandemic and the leadership that people perceive Palaszczuk to have shown," he said.
Dr Williams said a problem for the LNP was that voters did not see it as the natural party of government.
The conservatives have only won two elections since 1989 in Queensland.
Voters turned to the LNP as a protest vote against Wayne Goss's public sector reforms in 1995 and Anna Bligh's asset sales in 2012, Dr Williams said.
"The Queensland electorate needs a reason to protest to throw a government out," he said.
"Has that case been made? No, not to my mind."
Australian Associated Press
