This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Almost 40% of United Australia party candidates do not live in the electorates they are standing for, and the party has recruited senior executives from Clive Palmer’s mining interests to fill its ranks.

Guardian Australia has analysed the vast pool of 173 candidates fielded by Palmer’s UAP, crosschecking current residential addresses on the electoral roll against the seats each is standing for.

It reveals that 68 lower and upper house candidates don’t live in their seats, according to the roll.

At least four live more than 1,000km from their seats.

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Lynda Abdo, UAP’s candidate for the NSW electorate of Hume, which covers outer Sydney suburbs and the southern tablelands and highlands, lives in Cairns, Queensland. That’s roughly 1,970km away from Hume’s centre.

Abdo told Guardian Australia she had lived in Sydney for “most of my life” and recently moved to Cairns, but has plans to return to NSW. “I will be campaigning in the electorate of Hume in the days to come,” she said.

Scott Feeney, the party’s candidate for the north-western Sydney electorate of Greenway, also lives and works in Cairns, according to the electoral roll and his social media and LinkedIn profiles.

Other UAP candidates live far closer to the seats they are now vying for. George Zoraya, the party’s candidate for Chisholm in Melbourne, lives in the nearby seat Isaacs, for example. He grew up in the suburbs that make up Chisholm, and has a good grasp of local issues.

“I recently moved, but I grew up in Blackburn South, my family grew up there, lived there for 35 years, and my grandfather was in Box Hill, so I’ve seen Box Hill to Mount Waverley change like I wouldn’t have believed,” he said.

The party has also turned to senior executives from Palmer’s company, Queensland Nickel, to boost its ranks, including the company’s managing director, Ian Ferguson, who is standing in Oxley.

Ferguson used his Queensland Nickel email address to register with the Australian Electoral Commission.

Craig Gunnis and Martin Brewster, two other UAP candidates, have also worked for Queensland Nickel in senior roles.

The UAP did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.

Last week, it was revealed that UAP had struck a preference deal with the Liberals, which could prove critical in a number of marginal seats. The deal might also help Palmer reclaim a spot in the Senate and potentially give his party a critical balance of power role.

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The party has been spending an enormous amount on advertising, across traditional and social media. One of its current senators, Brian Burston, formerly of One Nation, told the ABC the spend would amount to $60m, a vast sum for a minor party.

But an eligibility cloud hangs over more than a dozen UAP candidates, who could potentially fall foul of constitutional requirements governing dual citizenship.

At least 19 of its candidates have submitted incomplete or inconsistent information to the Australian Electoral Commission, failing to provide evidence they are eligible to run for parliament.