- BERLIN (AP) -- People outside
the United States could only watch, wait and vent as Americans lined up
to vote Tuesday in an election that provoked an extraordinary degree of
emotional involvement beyond U.S. borders.
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- Not just leaders and news media, but ordinary people
were riveted by the contest between President Bush and John Kerry, convinced
that a world roiled by the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, the war on terrorism,
and cultural and religious conflict had a huge stake in the outcome.
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- Saif-ur Rahman, a 36-year-old lawyer in Pakistan's capital,
Islamabad, planned to watch the results come in and hopes for a change.
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- "Muslims have suffered under Bush whether they are
in America or elsewhere," he said. "I hope Kerry will change
that."
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- In Sao Paulo, Brazil, Wagner Markues, 54, also prefers
Kerry and wonders why the race is so close.
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- "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?"
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- Lee Tim Hoe, a car salesman in Malaysia, said he was
"keeping my fingers crossed for Kerry to win. I will try to keep awake
to catch the final results."
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- In Israeli newspapers, the U.S. election topped front
pages, overshadowing even big local stories - Yasser Arafat's illness and
a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
-
- "Kerry or Bush," read the red, white and blue
headline in the daily Yediot Ahronot.
-
- "A day that will decide the fate of the world,"
read a banner headline in Britain's Independent.
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- Many rooted for one side with a kind of intensity sometimes
lacking in their own domestic elections.
-
- 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, made him a target for many.
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- Polls in many countries - and a quick survey of the newspapers
and TV - left little doubt that Kerry is the preferred choice across much
of the globe. But while popular opinion was sometimes skeptical of Bush,
he has support from the leaders of foreign countries as diverse as Britain,
Australia, Russia and Japan.
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- In Europe, Bush remained a tough sell.
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- "The man to beat," France's Liberation said
in big type above a picture of Bush. In Germany, where Bush is deeply unpopular,
Michael Moore's anti-Bush film "Fahrenheit 9/11" was prime time
fare on television on election eve.
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- Many places have held mock polls, such as the artists,
writers and professors in the Italian region of Tuscany, who organized
what they billed as "the first American elections for non-Americans."
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- At the heart of the matter is a belief that in an era
of globalization, when American decisions affect hundreds of millions around
the globe, the election is not just a U.S. issue.
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- "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."
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- Plenty of foreign politicians have personal stakes in
the outcome - and in these circles the choice is more balanced.
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- Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Russian
President Vladimir Putin, for instance, have signaled their preference
for Bush.
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- "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 sent 500 Japanese troops to Iraq on a humanitarian mission.
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- Putin has said a Bush defeat would mean a "new impulse"
for terrorism, though he has declined 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.
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- The politicians who were keeping quiet - the usual practice
regarding another country's elections - had a big stake as well.
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- For France and Germany - dubbed "Old Europe"
by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld - a Kerry White House would mean a
chance of mending ties, but could bring newfound complications. Both nations
refused to help Bush in Iraq, but may have a problem saying no again if
Kerry makes good on his campaign pledge to seek more allies in the war.
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- If Kerry wins, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder may
face pressure to back off his refusal to send troops to Iraq.
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- "If a newly elected president calls for a new contribution
that we've refused up to now, it won't be so easy to reject as it fortunately
has been with the enemy image of Bush," former defense minister Rudolf
Scharping said.
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-45
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