Australian Prime Minister John Howard scored a convincing victory in Australia's federal election yesterday, winning an historic fourth term in a vote that will ensure the staunch US ally will keep its troops in Iraq for the foreseeable future.
With more than 60 percent of votes tallied, Labor Party leader Mark Latham conceded defeat in a speech to supporters in western Sydney, saying he'd called Howard to congratulate him.
"Tonight was not our night," Latham told the crowd.
The election was widely seen abroad as the first referendum for the three leaders who launched the invasion of Iraq in March last year, with US President George W. Bush facing a ballot next month and British Prime Minister Tony Blair probably facing voters next year.
Labor had vowed to bring the roughly 900 Australian troops deployed in and around Iraq home by Christmas, while Howard insisted they would stay until Iraqis ask them to leave.
Howard was expected to claim victory in a speech soon after Latham's concession. His team became confident soon after early counting showed the conservative coalition had taken an early lead, and ecstatic as it held throughout the night.
This "is an extraordinary feat for Prime Minister John Howard," Finance Minister Nick Minchin said earlier on ABC television.
With around 65 percent of votes counted, official figures showed Howard's coalition had 52.3 percent to Labor's 47.7 percent, giving it a clear lead in the race for a majority in parliament's 150-seat lower house, where government is formed.
Australians have focused more on the economy, health and education than on Howard's unpopular decision to join the Bush-led coalition in Iraq.
The campaign also hinged on personalities, with three-term incumbent Howard seen as a colorless but reliable steward of the economy, and Latham perceived as young and energetic, but also inexperienced and sometimes undisciplined.
Howard sent 2,000 troops to Iraq last year despite protests that portrayed him as Bush's lackey. The number has since dwindled to 900, and none have combat roles. No Australian soldiers have been killed.
Howard voted at a school after taking a walk around Sydney Harbor, where he asked passers-by not to use their votes to punish his conservative coalition for unpopular policies.
At the polls, a man in line said to the prime minister: "Mr. Howard, if you win, I'm moving to Europe." Another woman asked him when he was going to stop lying to the Australian public. Howard ignored the man and said "thank you" to the woman.
Howard, 65, is now in his ninth year in office and is expected to retire before serving out his full three-year term.
Had the 43-year-old Latham won, he would have become one of the country's youngest-ever leaders.
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