But until recently most voting was class voting, with each party guaranteed a solid base among its natural supporters.
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Indeed, until quite recently most Social Democrats needed a lot of persuading that German forces should play a bigger international part, in Bosnian peacekeeping for instance.
Until recently most people in the waste industry had assumed that it was impossible to reduce the amount being produced and were concentrating on putting the stuff to better use.
Simeon II has touched a nerve here - until recently most Bulgarians had probably forgottten they even had a king, and just a few months ago his party did not even exist.
Up until recently, most of the technologies to do this were expensive or limited in focus.
But the government put off his execution several times, most recently until the end of this year.
Until recently, most archeologists continued to ascribe the Neolithic revolution to a combination of climatic and demographic factors.
While many organizations have forestalled the migration to Windows 7 until recently, most are now clearly anticipating making the upgrade.
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Until recently, most politicians, pundits and others among the so-called "smart people" insisted that Election 2012 was all about jobs, jobs, jobs.
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Until recently, most leaders could get by with critical and implementation thinking.
Until recently, most experts felt that the emotional bias outweighed the brain activation and the net result for emotion was worse decision making.
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There is a clear downward trend until October, the most recently reported month, when revenue growth rose to -4.1% after bottoming out at -4.9% in September.
Until very recently, most of the increase has been due to better survival in childhood and youth, rather than the increased prolongation of middle age into old age.
Every time human settlers stepped into those areas in serious numbers, they got bit, then they got sick, and then, until very recently, most of them backed off.
Until recently, most of DoCoMo's customers used their phones mainly to send and receive short messages, he points out, and GSM users have been able to do that since 1993.
Until recently, most assumed that the Kremlin would persuade or force Menatep, the firm that represents Yukos's main shareholders, to let go of Yukos while leaving Yukos itself relatively unharmed.
All this comes at a time when the Progress Party, until recently the most right-wing party in parliament, has just readmitted Mogens Glistrup, the vociferous and extreme opponent of immigration who helped found the party.
That is because the Northern Irish leader in the most obvious trouble until recently was not Mr Adams, but Mr Trimble.
Benjamin, had until recently focused her most of her attention on a single issue, obesity, without anything new or specific to suggest.
Until recently, the most high-profile project on Kickstarter was Diaspora, a social-networking site that creators said would emphasize privacy in ways that Facebook doesn't.
However, until recently, the most high profile opponent had been local salmon fisherman Michael Forbes (no relation), the public face of the protest group Tripping Up Trump.
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Until recently, the parallel was most evident in both men's strong penchant for the personality cult although not even Stalin thought of building a gold statue of himself that rotates with the sun, as Mr Niyazov has in his capital, Ashgabat.
This barrage of dams generates valuable electricity, aids irrigation and regulates flooding but in the process does irreparable damage to what was, until recently, the Mekong's most valuable resource: its fisheries.
Until recently the company relied on only the most basic technology telephone and fax.
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True, you can't use derivative money to buy groceries in a supermarket, but until recently, they were accepted currency in most financial markets.
Welcome to the world's newest Monaco, a haven for the ultra-rich in what until recently was mocked as one of the most straight-laced, boring cities in the world.
Until recently, the education ministry was among the most zealous proselytisers for this system.
Moreover, through clever structuring of contracts and aggressive lawyering, SICO was able to keep most pensioners handing over their checks--until recently.
Until recently, the EU's remonstrations counted most.
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In addition to the sudden volume of information about a topic that until recently few people cared about, what strikes me most is how little I learn from most of what I read.
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