Howard Wins Big in .au; Afghanistan holds elections

Australian Prime Minister John Howard easily won re-election with a Liberal 52.4-47.6 victory over Labor, increasing Howard's party's majority in Parliament. This surprises me after hearing opinions that Howard was widely hated and Latham creamed him in the debates.

One thing to note is that Howard has tied himself so closely to Bush that this election was partly one foreign country's referendum on the invasion of Iraq, and we can glean from the results that the nation of Australia strongly supports the escapade. However, I admit to not knowing much about Australian politics or what the really important issues were to Australians.

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Meanwhile, Afghanistan held elections largely free of violence, a very good sign that the country is stabilizing. Karzai is expected to win, but fifteen of the eighteen candidates -- other three are Karzai and two who earlier withdrew to support him -- have withdrawn from the race in protest, alleging fraud, and are telling their supporters not to recognize the Karzai government as legitimate. That could cause trouble, but I expect most Afghans will see the vote as legitimate enough.

Posted by Warrior Tang at October 9, 2004 09:19 AM

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