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Today, 19 March 2010

› Sky journo fingers guards

› Man (20) held for dog sex

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› AfriForum 'slapped in face'

› Malema chickens out

Yesterday, 18 March 2010

› 'Distasteful' Zille slated

› 'Tender not advertised'

› 'Zuma let the world down'

› Zuma to 'militarise' wives

› 'I was not drag racing'

Despite a new ballot dispute in the US presidential election, George W. Bush strengthened his hand for an eventual second term, polling stronger than ever and helping Republicans tighten their hold on Congress.

Barring a stunning reversal in the midwestern state of Ohio, Bush seemed in good shape to claim a fresh mandate for his war on terror, military operation in Iraq and domestic initiatives from tax cuts to faith-based governance.

The refusal by Democrat John Kerry to concede the critical state kept the election officially open early on Wednesday in an eerie reminder of the 2000 contest that had to be decided by the US Supreme Court.

But while commentators fretted anew over flaws in the archaic US system that relies on electors awarded state by state, Bush could still take heart in his showing after a hotly contested campaign.

Surprising lead for Bush

The Republican rolled up a surprising 3.6-million vote lead over the Massachusetts senator in the nationwide popular vote, carving out a 51-48 percent edge in a race that pre-election polls had called a dead heat.

For the president, the result was a sweet reversal from four years ago when he lost the popular tally to Al Gore by more than half a million votes, fueling taunts that he lacked a legitimate mandate to rule.

Bush could also be cheered by a 370 000-vote victory in the southeastern state Florida, which Democrats claim he stole in 2000 with a 537-vote win that survived five weeks of recounts and litigation.

The president was not ready to claim re-election with the Ohio dispute leaving him officially short of the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch a second four-year lease on the White House.

Chief of staff confident of victory

But his chief of staff Andrew Card said Bush's total marked the first time since 1988 that the winner in a presidential election received a majority of the popular vote.

"This all adds up to a convincing Electoral College victory, as well as a strong endorsement of President Bush by his fellow Americans in the popular vote," Card told cheering supporters here in a pre-dawn appearance.

The Democrats clearly had an uphill task to erase Bush's 145 000-vote edge in Ohio through an unspecified number of absentee ballots and provisional ballots that were cast but held aside to determine the voter's eligibility.

The Republicans stepped up pressure on Kerry to concede, with Bush campaign communications director Nicolle Devenish calling his refusal to throw in the towel on Ohio "delusional".

Edwards pledged to carry on battle

And it was not clear whether the Democrats would go down to the mat. Kerry's running-mate John Edwards pledged to make sure all votes were counted but spoke of carrying on the battle for "one more night".

More resounding were the Republican successes in Congress where they looked poised to consolidate and even improve their position despite earlier Democratic hopes of taking at least the Senate.

Republicans looked set to ride Bush's coattails to a wider margin in the Senate, boosting their 51-seat edge in the outgoing 100-member body to as many as 55 seats after turning back several Democratic challenges in key states.

Among the scalps claimed was Senate minority leader Tom Daschle, the top Democrat in Congress, who lost a squeaker in South Dakota to John Thune, a former member of the House of Representatives.

Republican leaders had made a priority of beating Daschle, who last won re-election in 1998 with 62 percent of the vote, and tapped the telegenic, former basketball start Thune as their standard bearer.

In the House of Representatives, Republicans were also set to increase their 18-seat advantage over Democrats, exceeding by a comfortable margin the 218 seat-threshold needed to claim a majority in the 435-seat chamber.