Howard faces toughest election yet

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/11/21/australia.elections/index.html
SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Polls suggest that more than 11 years of conservative rule in Australia looks likely to come to an end this Saturday as the nation votes on whether Prime Minister John Howard deserves another term.

Howard, chasing a fifth straight win for his Liberal-National coalition, is well behind Labor newcomer Kevin Rudd in the opinion polls.
But Howard, a veteran politician who is a staunch ally of U.S. President George W. Bush, is known as a wily and tenacious campaigner who has been written off in previous political battles, only to come back victorious.
"It's not over yet," he said this week, telling supporters Wednesday the election was still winnable for the coalition.
Rudd agrees it will be close.
"Whoever wins this election on Saturday will win by a nose," he told the National Press Club in the Australian capital Canberra on Wednesday.
The key issues for Australia's 13 million voters are seen as economic management, education, health, national security and climate change.