Prime Minister John Howard Becomes the Second Australian Prime Minister in 106 Years to Lose His Seat in Parliament on the Heels of a Crushing Defeat by Kevin Rudd’s Labor Party
Running on a
platform of pulling Australian combat troops out of Iraq, Kevin Rudd’s Labor
Party dealt a convincing defeat to Prime Minister John Howard’s Liberal Party
and, by extension, to United States President George Bush.
With Labor
getting 5,202,433 votes (53.41%) to the Liberal/National Coalition’s 4,537,511
(46.59%) Labor looks set to win at least 83 seats in the 150 seat Parliament,
with 9 seats yet to be determined.
In John
Howard’s New South Wales Bennelong constituency, Mixine
McKew received 37,101 votes (51.84%) to the Prime
Minister’s 34,472 (48.16%) after
redistribution of the votes. Among first
choice ballots, McKew received 32,852 (45.90%) to
Howard’s 32,283 (45.10%).
Australians
vote by preferential ballot, with first choice losers
votes redistributed to their second, and subsequent choices until all
candidates except the top two have been eliminated. So, McKew won 4,249
of the redistributed votes to Howard’s 2,189; almost two to one.
For complete election results: http://www.aec.gov.au