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US mid-term elections head to hard-fought finish

GRAND ISLAND: US elections shaped by the Iraq war headed for a hard-fought finish, with polls favouring opposition Democrats but showing US President George W Bush’s Republicans gaining ground.

A day before US midterm elections, both parties are focused on turning out voters in the battle for control of Congress.

Republicans and Democrats have sent thousands of volunteers to states with the most contested races to work phone banks and canvass neighborhoods. Both parties also have assembled legal teams for possible challenges in case of voting problems.

To be decided are 435 House seats, 33 Senate seats, governorships in 36 states, and thousands of state legislative and local races. In 37 states, voters also will determine the fate of ballot initiatives, including whether to ban gay marriage, raise the minimum wage, endorse expanded embryonic stem cell research and -in South Dakota -impose the country’s most stringent abortion restrictions.

Bush, weakened by the unpopular war in Iraq that may cost Republicans control of the Congress, seized on the death sentence imposed on Saddam Hussein as a hopeful sign of flourishing democracy in the violence-wracked country.

“History will record today’s judgment as an important achievement on the path to a free and just and unified society,” he said, vowing to “support Iraq’s unity government as it works to bring peace to its great country.”

White House spokesman Tony Snow dismissed as “preposterous” any suggestion that it manipulated the trial for maximum electoral advantage and said it was “absolute proof” that Iraq now possessed an “independent judiciary.”

Democrats hailed the sentence against Saddam but warned it would not solve the challenges US forces face in Iraq, which was plagued by a raging insurgency and escalating sectarian strife that has fed a rising US death toll.

“Justice for the Iraqi people was finally served today,” but “Iraq is in the middle of a civil war and growing sectarian violence will be an even greater concern following this verdict,” said Democratic party chief Howard Dean.

The Democrats needed a net 15 seats out of the total 435 in play on Tuesday to control the House. They hoped for a gain of six Senate seats out of the 33 at stake that would give them the edge in the 100-member upper chamber. A Democratic victory would dramatically reshape the political landscape for Bush’s final two years in office and the 2008 election to choose his successor. Agencies

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