Howard is back

It’s all over, with the Coalition having made it 76 seats. In fact so far Libs look to have won five off Labor, and only lost three in return. Latham is about to concede and Howard has won a 4th term.

This makes Howard Australia’s second most sucessful Prime Minister (after Menzies who was PM from 1949 to 1966) and the most sucessful current centre-right politican in the world (appropriate for the Chairman of the International Democrat Union).

The Republicans in the US will be much relieved by this. Having Latham withdraw tropps from Iraq in the middle of the US election campaign would not have been good for them.

UPDATE: Looks to be a 2% swing to the Coaltiion overall. This is amazing considering they also got a swing to them last election, despite being in Government. Latest ABC prediction is Coalition 86, Labor 61 and Others 3. Last election it was Coalition 82, Labor 65 and Others 3.

UPDATE 2: It looks like the Liberals won eight seats off Labor – well beyond anyone predictions, as most focus was on what the net loss to Labor would be. This makes 2007 a lot harder for Labor as they will need to pick up at least 15 seats.