His friendliness to blacks, according to Webster Brooks, the political director of the National Black Republican Leadership Council, is intended to increase his share of the black vote in the mid-west, which could provide the margin of victory in the region that traditionally decides the election.

ECONOMIST: The selling of a candidate

Labour's manifesto said clearly that the party intended to remove the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords.

ECONOMIST: Labour��s Lords reform does not go far enough

The 2005 vote was one of the final steps in a peace process intended to end years of fighting between Hutu rebels and the Tutsi-controlled army.

BBC: Burundi profile

In 1997 59% intended to vote Labour, nearly four times more than fancied the Tories.

ECONOMIST: Teachers' foibles

In particular, they object to a requirement, intended to cut the link between vote-buying and ministerial budgets, that all cabinet ministers must resign their parliamentary seats.

ECONOMIST: Thailand

Despite an outcry both here and in Washington, there were no indications that Musharraf intended to lift his state of emergency before the vote.

NPR: Pakistan Court Clears Musharraf for New Term