PREMIER Anna Bligh has announced the state election will be held on March 24, ending weeks of speculation about when Queenslanders will go to the polls.

At a press conference in Brisbane this morning, Ms Bligh said she had planned to call an election for March 3, but decided to push it back because the Queenslanders deserve to see the results of the flood inquiry before casting their vote.

The Premier has also confirmed that the local government elections – which were scheduled for March 31 – will be pushed back, so Queenslanders won’t go to the ballot box on back-to-back weekends. She said the council elections were likely to be postponed until late April or early May.

Ms Bligh will visit the Governor on February 19 to officially dissolve the parliament and put her government into caretaker mode, giving candidates a 35-day campaign.

However, it is expected candidates will begin campaigning in earnest immediately, with Cairns candidate Gavin King taking to Twitter this morning to declare: “GAME ON!!”

In Brisbane, Ms Bligh said she would be “rightly criticised” if she took Queenslanders to the polls before they knew the outcome of the flood inquiry, which is looking into events and decision-making surrounding the January 2011 floods in southeast Queensland.

She acknowledged she was “in for the fight of her life” ahead of the election, with latest opinion polls indicating victory for Campbell Newman’s LNP.

At this morning’s press conference, Ms Bligh said Mr Newman is not the right person to lead Queensland, and Cairns candidate Gavin King is also “unsuitable” because of comments he made about rape victims in a newspaper column.

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