UAP name candidate

CLIVE Palmer’s United Australia Party has selected a Torquay Christian pastor as its candidate for Corangamite upcoming Federal election.

Daniel Abou-zeid, whole fly the UAP flag at yet to be confirmed nation poll, said a primary policy focus is an opposition to COVID-19 restrictions including lockdowns, mandatory vaccinations and masks.

“We’re campaigning on anti-lockdown mandates,” Mr Abou-zeid said.

The 42-year-old has been a pastor at Torquay’s evangelical Elevate Church since 2015.

Mr Abou-zeid said the Liberal Democrats’ Paul Barker, a Surf Coast Shire councillor, will be second behind the UAP on his how to vote cards, but further preference deals are yet to be announced.

The pair are running against Labor’s Libby Coker who sits on a knife edge margin in the seat.

Clive Palmer’s UAP is again splashing huge amounts of money on election advertising, reportedly having spent more than $30 million already since last August, far outstripping all the major parties combined.

The party is being led by controversial former Liberal party MP Craig Kelly, who faces an uphill battle for re-election in his NSW electorate of Hughes.

Mr Kelly quit the Liberal party at the start of 2021, claiming he was told to “shut up” and stop promoting medically unproven COVID-19 treatments by Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s office or he would be dropped as the party candidate in his seat.