Congrats in advance Kevin Rudd,

I'm probably the only Sydney voter here, and........................................

Voters prepare to pass judgment on Australia's John Howard

AS HE headed to a general election on Saturday November 24th John Howard, Australia's prime minister, was still hoping that he might, somehow, clinch a fifth term for the conservative coalition that he first led to power over 11 years ago. But it appeared more likely that he faced defeat, perhaps a decisive one, by the opposition Labor Party.

For his part, Mr Howard's campaign has been dogged by doubts about his future as Liberal Party leader. Under pressure in September he reluctantly pledged to retire "well into" a fifth term and hand over to Peter Costello, the country's younger finance minister. Since then, Labor has painted Mr Howard as a lame duck leader.

Nor did a scandal, two days before the election, help the ruling coalition. Several Liberal supporters were nabbed in Lindsay, a marginal western Sydney electorate, distributing leaflets that purported to come from a non-existent Islamic organisation. The leaflets falsely portrayed the Labor Party as supporting certain Muslim terrorists and the construction of a mosque in the electorate. Mr Howard dissociated himself from the affair, but it will not endear his party to voters.

Labor must gain 16 seats to win. Mr Howard will be banking on his record as Australia's second longest-serving prime minister, presiding over the country's longest economic growth in memory, to deprive his opponents of them. It may, somehow, still be possible for Mr Howard to hang on. But the odds are against him.
http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10198162&top_story=1

The Official 2007 Federal Election Results
http://vtr.aec.gov.au/

Australia - Conservative Prime Minister John Howard suffered a humiliating defeat Saturday at the hands of the left-leaning opposition, whose leader has promised to immediately sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and withdraw Australia's combat troops from Iraq.
Labor Party head Kevin Rudd's pledges on global warming and Iraq move Australia sharply away from policies that had made Howard one of President Bush's staunchest allies.

Rudd has named global warming as his top priority, and his signing of the Kyoto Protocol will leave the U.S. as the only industrialized country not to have joined it.

Rudd said he would withdraw Australia's 550 combat troops from Iraq, leaving twice that number in mostly security roles. Howard had said all the troops will stay as long as needed.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071124/ap_on_re_au_an/australia_election;_ylt=AoFbqXZKvIlHIl0H46Sr75us0NUE