It is not the sort of manoeuvre that is likely to succeed if at the same time he is threatening to shake up the ruling party.

ECONOMIST: The legacy of Taiwan��s Lee

Ms Davidson is the party's first overall leader for Scotland, following a shake-up of the party structure.

BBC: Leader Ruth Davidson admits she has a lot to prove

The post-1992 shake-up and new party-finance rules have made politicians across the board much more careful, though Italians still have low expectations of their public servants: witness the readiness of many Italians to vote for Silvio Berlusconi, the right-wing opposition's leader, despite his convictions for fraud.

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After a political shake-up in November, the Democratic Party of Albanians, led by a veteran power-broker, Arben Xhaferi, became the main partner of the governing party, a movement that traces its history to the Slav-nationalist struggles of a century ago but has since become tamer.

ECONOMIST: Macedonia

Presiding officers of the Scottish Parliament may in future be required to resign from their political party, under a possible shake-up of the rules.

BBC: Review of Holyrood presiding officer election rules

Add to this the fact that, as a Chinese-American, Mr Fong represents a chance for the Republicans to shake up their image as a whites-only party.

ECONOMIST: California��s Senate race

What it probably did was reinforce the perception in many Plaid members minds that the party establishment were concerned that a Leanne victory would really shake things up and had to be stopped.

BBC: How Leanne left others trailing

They see her views, such as her calls for a shake-up to the education system and the 35-hour working week, as a betrayal of the Socialist Party's leftist credentials.

BBC: NEWS | Europe | Royal battles for nomination

Although the leadership shake-up has been expected for months, nothing was certain because of secrecy and in-fighting within the ruling Party.

BBC: China begins leadership change