Everyone's election

2004-11-02 12:20

Berlin - For Americans suffering from election overload as the last hours tick away, a warning: even leaving the United States would offer no escape.

To an extraordinary degree, leaders, people and news media outside the country are riveted by Tuesday's vote, drawn into the Bush-Kerry struggle by a deep-rooted feeling that the world - given today's circumstances - has a huge stake in the outcome as well.

Bush's go-it-alone stance on many issues - from the Kyoto Treaty to the war in Iraq - as well as his religious outlook, his Texas background and single-minded approach, have mobilised and polarised people all over the world, even if they can't vote.

Polls in many countries - and a quick survey of the newspapers and TV - leave little doubt that Kerry is the preferred choice across much of the globe.

'Kerry the preferred choice'

In South Africa, News24's users granted US Democratic hopeful, Senator John Kerry, a landslide victory over President George W Bush.

In a poll posted on News24, nearly two-thirds of users (66%) said they would rather see Kerry in the White House over the next four years than Bush (34%).

While South Africans seem to favour the contender over the incumbent by a large margin, on US soil the polls show Bush and Kerry locked in a dead heat.

Polls in Germany run as high as 80% against Bush.

In Britain, the right-wing Economist magazine joined the left-wing Guardian newspaper in endorsing Kerry. France's Le Monde endorsed Kerry too.

Anti-Bush propaganda

On election eve, Monday, Michael Moore's anti-Bush film Fahrenheit 9/11 competes on prime time German television with Wag the Dog, about a US president who starts a war to distract from his domestic troubles, and with 24-hour news channel reports on the candidate's final day of campaigning.

In South Africa, Fahrenheit 9/11 was also screened on M-Net while still showing on the "big screen" - a first for South Africa.

In Sao Paulo, Brazil, cabdriver Wagner Markues, 54, prefers Kerry and wonders why the race is so close. "We don't understand America now," he said. "Are they getting different news than us about the scandals in the Iraqi prisons, and the children and civilians who are getting killed?"

Lots of places have held mock polls, such as the artists, writers and professors in the Italian region of Tuscany, who organised what they billed as "the first American elections for non-Americans."

At the heart of the matter is a belief that in an era of globalisation, when American decisions affect hundreds of millions around the globe, the election is not a domestic US issue.

'Why shouldn't the Italians vote?'

"Why shouldn't the Italians vote for the elections, too?" said screenwriter Michele Cogo. "The planet's destiny is decided in large part by America."

Plenty of foreign politicians have clear personal stakes in the outcome - and in these circles the choice is more balanced.

Japan's Junichiro Koizumi and Russia's Vladimir Putin, for instance, have signalled their preference for Bush.

"I don't want to interfere in another country's election, but I'm close to Bush so I'd like him to do well," said Koizumi, who threw in his lot with Bush by sending some 500 Japanese troops to Iraq on a humanitarian mission.

Putin has said a Bush defeat would mean a "new impulse" for terrorism, a clear sign of preference though he's refused to make an explicit endorsement. Bush has toned down criticism of Russia's heavy-handed campaign against separatist rebels in Chechnya in return for Putin's support in the war on terror.

Whole world at stake

Even the politicians who kept the endorsements to themselves had a big stake. For France and Germany - dubbed "Old Europe" by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld - a Kerry White House would mean a chance of mending ties.

These nations that refused to help Bush in Iraq may have a problem saying no again if Kerry makes good on his campaign pledge to seek new allies in the war.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, for instance, won re-election in 2002 largely because of his forceful rejection of the Iraq war, which he criticised as "an adventure" and "playing around."

Yet, despite Schroeder's cool relations with Bush, a Kerry win may put pressure on him to back off his refusal to send troops to Iraq.

- AP