Осетрова Е. Е. Пособие по общественно-политическому переводу elections

1. 
   Before it even began, the 2004 presidential race looked certain to be one of the most ugly and polarising electoral contests of recent times. In the event, it fully lived up to these low expectations.
   
2. 
   Bush's UN speech was sandwiched between meetings with world leaders – and a sit-down with Annan. It is an unusual burst of diplomacy for Bush, who has been keeping a punishing travel schedule to swing states as he seeks re-election.
   
3. 
   With a presidential election just over a year away, has the administration of President George W. Bush got the stomach not just to last the course in Baghdad but also to stick to its grand plan of "transforming" the Middle East and beyond, taking pre-emptive military action if needed?
   
4. 
   In a transparent attempt to inject some sap into their desiccated campaigns, candidates for American president now routinely deploy the odd tactic of repeatedly "launching" their bid for the White House. First there is the pre-announcement of an intention to run. Then, to great hoopla, is the formation of a presidential exploratory committee. Next comes the symbolic first visit to important primary states. Finally, months after the voters have lost interest, the candidate gravely informs a bemused world that he is, indeed, a candidate. Thus John Kerry, the patrician senator from Massachusetts who seems to have been running for president since about 1968, yesterday "began" his campaign for the highest office.
   
5. 
   The pensions dispute sets the stage for dramatic campaigning in the run-up to elections for the Upper House of Japan's parliament in two months, with the LDP struggling to offset the damage caused by the crisis and the DPJ having to find a new leader.
   
6. 
   Western observers have criticized election campaigning, casting doubt over whether Ukraine could hold a free and fair election when the media is biased in favor of Yanukovich's candidacy.
   
7. 
   Kostroma, Russia: There is almost no sign of a presidential election campaign here in the Russian heart-land, and apparently there is very little desire for one. From shoemaker to shopkeeper to hunter to teacher, it seems that almost everyone is backing the incumbent president Vladimir Putin.
   
8. 
   Ohio is a vital swing state which George Bush won narrowly in 2000 and probably must win again to hold on to the White House and it will potentially be the decisive state tomorrow – Super Tuesday, the biggest day in the Democratic nomination process. Ten states will vote tomorrow and if they follow the example of the 20 that have voted so far, they will make John Kerry the Democratic challenger to President Bush. He has won 18 contests so far and the biggest of the states with primaries tomorrow, California and New York, are in his pocket. To keep the contest going, John Edwards, his last remaining serious rival must win a handful.
   
9. 
   The long, bruising campaign was finally ending, surely not a moment too soon for the combatants.
   
10. 
    Kerry's aides say their prime-factor in settling on a vice presidential nominee would be practical: whether the running mate could help draw more votes to the senator.
    
11. 
    Russian campaign gurus and spin doctors have camped out in Kiev on the same mission to get Yanukovych elected, with some of them so self-confident and blatant in their actions as to admit that opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned so that his looks would not win him extra votes.
    
12. 
    The Massachusetts senator won nine out of the 10 state contests decided on Super Tuesday, most of them by double-figure margins, crushing his only serious rival, John Edwards, who bowed out of the race and offered his support to the presumptive nominee yesterday.
    
13. 
    Russia's involvement in the Ukrainian presidential race has been unprecedented. Political and cultural figures, from President Vladimir Putin to Soviet-era crooner Iosif Kobzon, have visited to root for Viktor Yanukovych.
    
14. 
    He is the firm favourite to win Afghanistan's first direct presidential election in October, yet Hamid Karzai, the affable, moderate incumbent, seems an almost reluctant candidate. While other, less prominent presidential hopefuls paste their faces on windscreens and doorways, Mr Karzai's aides and supporters complain that he is inactive.
    
15. 
    The Democrats hoped that by nominating a decorated Vietnam hero they would inoculate themselves against the traditional Republican charge that the “mummy party” is weak on security.
    

1. 
   Because of the tight race, especially in 10 battleground states, Republicans and Democrats said the election outcome may not be known quickly. Both sides had lawyers on standby for possible challenges. The legal battle in 2000 lasted five weeks and ended in the U.S. Supreme Court, where Bush prevailed.
   
2. 
   He looked back at a two-year campaign that took him from the apparently politically dead to the nomination.
   
3. 
   The sums are all the more remarkable this year as the funds are flowing into a smaller number of campaigns. In 2000, there were primary challengers for both the Republican and Democratic presidential nominations. In 2004, Mr Bush is unchallenged and Mr Kerry has secured nomination in a couple of months.
   
4. 
   New Hampshire goes to the polls next Tuesday in the first primary of the presidential election year – a direct one-man-one-vote election, as opposed to Iowa’s arcane caucuses – and the scene is now set for a titanic four-way battle.
   
5. 
   Positioning for the 2006 contest is already under way. With Mr Fox weakened by the severe loss of congressional seats, his National Action party (PAN) suffered in last month's mid-term elections, Mr Lopez Obrador is taking the opportunity to appear more presidential. His personal austerity is a part of the appeal.
   
6. 
   In the Republican Senate primary, Bill Jones, a former California secretary of state, easily defeated nine other candidates to secure the right to oppose Senator Barbara Boxer, a two-term incumbent, in November.
   
7. 
   His tortured relationship with the United States worsened after he and Bush took office within weeks of one another in early 2001.
   
8. 
   Faced with that widespread discontent both candidates are marketing themselves as agents of change – a normal strategy for a challenger, but a harder task for an incumbent with four years in office behind him.
   
9. 
   With voters in western Ukraine and the capital Kiev expected to vote strongly for Mr Yushchenko, a pro-western liberal, the rural regions of central and southern Ukraine are shaping up as the main poll battleground.
   
10. 
    Mr Roh's proposal was dismissed by many as a stunt to win votes in Chungcheong province, a crucial swing constituency in last year's election, and widespread doubts remain about the viability of the plan.
    
11. 
    These figures will become increasingly important as the next election approaches, to see if the Tories can broaden their appeal beyond their core. Overall, 30 per cent of the public count as swing or floating voters. When those who are unlikely to vote are excluded, 21 per cent of those likely to turn out are floating voters.
    
12. 
    Kerry and Bush are very different candidates. First, while Bush is often derided as inarticulate, Kerry has other issues with language. He might be called over-articulate, or fond of adding 12 words when one might do. Second, if Bush is a ham on the stump, Kerry is the lead in a Shakespearean drama. He is a big man with a big voice and a command of the material and the stage, but he sometimes can appear more focused on his words than on his audience.
    
13. 
    Opinion polls showed that although Iraq has certainly cost him in terms of the trust voters place in him, Mr Blair and the Labour party are on course to beat a weak opposition at the next general election, likely to be held next year.
    
14. 
    But Ukrainian political analysts said the Russian spin doctors had underestimated the differences between the two countries and that PR techniques that worked in Russia had rebounded against Yanukovych.
    

1. 
   This year's combative presidential debates and the ever fluctuating polls were evidence of a still vibrant democracy in full song and of a competitive contest. Contrast that with more anaemic or petrified two-party systems nearer to home.
   
2. 
   Andrew Cooper from Populus, a polling organisation, says that this ability to appeal to and empathise with middle class ambitions and concerns remains one of Mr Blair's key electoral assets.
   
3. 
   According to the Grupo Reforma media group, Mr Lopez Obrador's national approval rating has riven by 5 percentage points since June to 59 per cent – overtaking Marta Sahagun de Fox, the president's popular wife.
   
4. 
   Earlier this year, prime minister Zoran Zivkovic government rode high on a tide of popular support after the assassination of his predecessor, Zoran Djindjic, in March.
   
5. 
   Republican anxiety centred on the president's failure to achieve any last-minute surge in the polls. Mr Rove was said to have hoped to create a "bandwagon-effect" that would make the incumbent unstoppable, but that did not come.
   
6. 
   The most obvious indicator is that Aznar's former deputy and designated successor, Mariano Rajoy, is running comfortably ahead in the polls, regardless of the 1,3000 Spanisn troops now in Iraq.
   
7. 
   John Kerry yesterday asserted his leadership of a Democratic party that pollsters said was at its most united for a generation, after he clinched the presidential nomination with a string of convincing primary wins.
   
8. 
   This tricky domestic agenda has persuaded Mr Aznar to favour Mr Rajoy as his successor over Rodrigo Rato, the internationally respected economy minister who was the other front-runner for the top job. Mr Rajoy, currently first deputy prime minister and government spokesman, has headed ministries including public administration, education and the interior.
   
9. 
   Opinion polls have shown a majority would support Mr Roh in a vote of confidence – despite his approval rating hovering around 30 per cent – sparking accusations that the move is a ploy to distract attention from the SK scandal and galvanise his support before next April's parliamentary elections.
   
10. 
    Party members quickly rallied behind him as soon as they were convinced he was best placed to defeat President Bush. Mr Kerry's poll ratings consistently rose against President Bush's throughout the primaries, which were far less bruising than the Democratic or Republican nomination battles four years ago.
    
11. 
    Georgia, where Mr Kerry's lead is narrowing, seems to be his best hope of a win. He must eke out at least one victory to remain viable.
    
12. 
    New polls told a now-familiar story – it's neck and neck in key states, including Florida and Ohio, that could decide the election.
    
13. 
    Now, as the presidential campaign has narrowed to a race between the two men in the coast-to-coast Super Tuesday primaries, strains between the senators are growing evident. Their relationship has become a source of speculation among Democrats, not only because they are competitors in the primaries but because party leaders are increasingly entertaining the notion of a Kerry-Edwards ticket.
    
14. 
    Though Mr Edwards is behind in the polls in every state voting today, his aides point to his record of strong finishes and his ability to attract independent and Republican voters in earlier primaries and caucuses. In Maryland, Mr Edwards is at least close behind the front-runner in the polls, which most recently put Mr Kerry's lead at 7%, but Mr Edwards has not been able to spend much time there, concentrating instead on bigger states.
    
15. 
    Dr Dean, who has let slip all number of gaffes in recent weeks and fared poorly under the intense scrutiny that comes with frontrunner status, conceded that the result had relegated him down the pack.
    
16. 
    While both parties had despatched litigation teams to Ohio in readiness for the expected battles, Mr Kerry's staff reached the conclusion that such a feat was beyond his reach and Ohio's prized 20 Electoral College votes were unattainable.
    

1. 
   Yushchenko is expected to face a run-off with Kuchma ally Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich at the election, which analysts expect will go to a second round in November.
   
2. 
   The figures mean she will be forced into a run off in two weeks against Anna Markova, a former deputy governor and ally of Vladimir Yakovlev, the outgoing governor and long-standing rival of Mr Putin.
   
3. 
   Serbia's democratic reform movement is preparing itself for big changes as Serbs head to the polls tomorrow in their most important elections since 2000. Analysts expect a dramatic reshuffling of power among rival democrats who, while struggling against each other, face an unexpectedly powerful resurgence of hardline nationalist forces.
   
4. 
   Others have pointed to the Nicaraguan election of 1990, when the ruling Sandinistas saw a sizeable campaign lead disintegrate because "undecided voters" turned out en masse to vote against the leftwing party at the last minute.
   
5. 
   Voter turnout in Hong Kong's first elections since the summer's mass demonstrations hit a record high yesterday, signalling likely gains for the pro-democracy movement.
   
6. 
   The driving force behind the “velvet revolution” on Sunday, Mikhail Saakashvili, 35, is almost certain to be Georgia's next president. The dynamic, United States educated lawyer with a Dutch wife is expected to usher in a bold new era of Georgian politics. According to independently conducted exit polls, Mr Saakashvili's party won this month's parliamentary elections and it is assumed that Mr Saakashvili will run for president.
   
7. 
   Waking up to chill, grey skies and nursing election hangovers, they had lived in the hope that once counted, the outstanding 175,000 provisional ballots – those cast by people not on the regular poll lists, perhaps because they had moved homes -would give them enough of a boost to overturn the 140,000-vote lead held by President Bush.
   
8. 
   Kiev – Turnout at many polling stations was implausibly high. Absentee ballots were cast multiple times. Disappearing ink made ballots invalid. These are a few if the hundreds of violations reported by voters and independent observers at Ukraine's runoff election, which Western and local observers denounced Monday as fraught with fraud and abuse.
   
9. 
   Both sides had get-out-the-vote armies primed for action, plus lawyers deployed across the country ready to throw any photo finish into court at the first sign of polling-place irregularities.
   
10. 
    The Kremlin may have opted for Yanukovych because if he wins, the voting is seen as rigged and his election is not recognized by the West, it could drive him into Russia's arms in the short term. In the long term, however, Western leaders would soften their stance, given Ukraine's geostrategic importance, and Yanukovych would still have to balance relations with the EU, the United States and Russia if he wanted an independent Ukraine.
    
11. 
    When Senator John Kerry conceded yesterday, Democrats in Ohio were left wondering how they could have lost and what more could have been done, given that 170,000 volunteers had flocked to the state from across the world.
    
12. 
    One tracking poll put John Kerry, fresh from his resounding victory in Iowa, ahead in New Hampshire, where Dr Dean has commanded a double-digit lead for months.
    
13. 
    Sunday's victory for Edmund Stoiber, incumbent Bavarian premier, had been widely predicted. Its magnitude had not.
    
14. 
    He won resounding victories in all regions of the country, and outscored his rivals in all the party's traditional support groups: women, African Americans, Jewish Americans and union members.
    
15. 
    The frontrunner to replace Mr Kan is Ichiro Ozawa, a former secretary-general of the LDP and an outspoken reformer. He is best known for having ended the LDP's grip on power in 1993 for the only time since the end of the second world war – he led 44 rebel politicians away from the party, ending its majority.
    
16. 
    The president’s acceptance of the possibility of a low turnout among Sunni voters in Iraq reflects the administration’s determination to press ahead with the polls. Donald Rumsfeld, the defense secretary, has also expressed the view that the results would be seen as legitimate if Iraqis could vote in a majority of provinces.
    

1. 
   The current president, Johannes Rau, a Social Democrat, announced several weeks ago that he would step down, a move that many people here assume was prompted by the conservative majority on the presidential election commission.
   
2. 
   Serbia's governing reform coalition, which came to power three years ago after the toppling of Slobodan Milosevic, called for early elections yesterday after the detection of two minor parties finally wiped out its parliamentary majority.
   
3. 
   A good result in the regional and parliamentary elections will give Mr Chirac a freer hand for a mid-year shake-up. This in turn will determine how he deals with Nicholas Sarkozy, the ambitious and highly popular interior minister. No love is lost between these two men. Mr Sarkozy has antagonised the president by declaring he will fight the 2007 presidential poll and urged 70 year-old Mr Chirac to desist from standing for a third term.
   
4. 
   Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a Colorado Republican and the only American Indian in the Senate, announced Wednesday that he would not seek a third term this autumn. The retirement of Campbell, who is 70 and has had health problems, will deprive Capitol Hill of one of its more colorful figures. It will also create an open Senate seat as Republicans try to keep their slim majority.
   
5. 
   The suspicion lingers that Mr. Koizumi is Japan's most electable politician because he talks about economic reform without embarking on the painful business of actually carrying it out. His popularity within the otherwise moribund LDP and yesterday's cabinet reshuffle suggest that his most significant reforms are in Jananese politics.
   
6. 
   Ilham Aliev, whose ailing father Geidar has held an iron grip on Azerbaijan for a decade, was confirmed in his new post by a unanimous vote. His elevation means that be is now almost certain to take over as president possibly as soon as October.
   
7. 
   Since the Communists defeated the Nationalists in a civil war and took control of China in 1949, the party has repeatedly failed to execute orderly successions. All three of the men chosen-by-Mao Zedong to succeed him were purged before they could consolidate power, two of them by Мао himself and the third by Deng Xiaoping after Mao's death in 1976.
   
8. 
   The latest opinion polls give the Radicals 25 per cent of votes, although no mainstream party will join them in a coalition.
   
9. 
   Jaatteenmaki still enjoys support among Center Party members and in June, a year after she quit, she plans to run in elections for the European Parliament.
   
10. 
    Nevertheless, pressure has been growing inside the coalition for a government reshuffle after Italy completes its six-month EU presidency at the end of December.
    
11. 
    Italy's ruling centre-right coalition put aside its internal disputes yesterday and passed a parliamentary vote of confidence in itself that should allow accelerated approval of the 2004 budget.
    
12. 
    The task facing Mariano Rajoy, nominated by Jose Maria Aznar to succeed him as the centre-right Popular party's candidate for prime minister in Spain's general election next March, is harder than it looks. He is likely to need all the affability and common touch with which, unlike his rather dour boss, he is credited.
    
13. 
    Signor Berlusconi and Signor Prodi, who are long-standing political rivals, have been at odds since Italy took over the presidency of the EU Council of Ministers in July. At the EU summit in Rome in October, launching final negotiations on the European constitution, the "odd couple", as they are dubbed in the Italian press, could barely bring themselves to shake hands.
    
14. 
    Mr Roh cited the scandal as the main reason for his decision last week to call a referendum on his leadership and resign if he failed to secure а confidence vote.
    
15. 
    President Putin dismissed his Prime Minister and the entire Russian Government yesterday in a move to consolidate power ahead of a presidential election next month. He appointed Viktor Khristenko, the Deputy Prime Minister, as acting Prime Minister. Under the Constitution, a new candidate for the post must be submitted to parliament within two weeks of the Govermnent’s dismissal. All ministers will remain in place until a new Cabinet is appointed.
    
16. 
    Ms Burdzhanadze, the former Speaker, is the acting President, having taken over on Saturday after Mr Shevadnadze was forced by protesters to leave parliament.
    

But commentators praised him as an exciting campaigner. "John Edwards has more talent in his little finger than John Kerry has in his entire body," said Charles Cook, a respected Washington analyst.

Mr Kerry said Mr Edwards showed "great promise for leadership in the years to come".

His performance has led to speculation that he could be chosen as the running mate in November.

From Iowa in mid-January to the Super Tuesday contests, Mr Edwards almost never departed from his relentlessly upbeat message, and the wide grin rarely left his boyish face.

He won over voters by his refusal to criticise the other contenders for the Democratic nomination directly, and by a rousing stump speech in which he promised to end a system of two Americas tilted to benefit of the wealthy and privileged.