SYDNEY (AFP) — Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Sunday called a general election for November 24, in which the staunch US ally in Iraq will face the fight of his political life as polls show him heading for defeat.
Pleading with voters for support whether they "love me or loathe me" after 11 years in office, Howard insisted his experience set him ahead of opposition leader Kevin Rudd.
At a press conference which ended weeks of fevered media speculation and nearly a year of bitter unofficial campaigning, Howard made a humble though determined bid for a fifth term in office.
But even after waiting until the last minute to call the poll, and giving himself a full six weeks to campaign, he is facing what is expected to be the country's most bruising election clash in a decade.
The conservative 68-year-old leader of the Liberal Party is trailing badly in opinion polls in a battle against Labor Party leader and former diplomat Rudd, the toughest opponent to emerge since Howard won power in 1996.
Rudd has pledged to pull Australian troops out of Iraq, but domestic issues such as the booming economy and the government's radical industrial relations reforms -- not the Iraq war -- are expected to be key election battlegrounds.
Howard said Australia was enjoying "a remarkable level of national prosperity" and that the country's best years could lie ahead with him at the helm.
"But that won't happen automatically," he said. "In order for that to happen, this country does not need new leadership, it does not need old leadership, it needs the right leadership."
With voters concerned over house prices and rising interest rates putting pressure on mortgages, Howard stressed his ability to manage the economic boom and said he believed record unemployment could go even lower.
"The right leadership is the leadership that tells the Australian people where it stands on issues and what it believes in," he said.
"Can I say, love me or loathe me, the Australian people know where I stand on all the major issues of importance to their future."
The announcement came as a new survey confirmed earlier opinion polls showing that the prime minister is facing electoral defeat.
The latest Newspoll early Monday shows Howard is facing annihilation at the ballot box, with Labor sitting on 56 per cent of the vote, compared to 44 for the coalition led by the serving premier.
The poll, published in The Australian newspaper, shows Labor's primary vote remains on 48 per cent and the coalition's is unchanged on 39 per cent, the Australian Associated press reported.
A separate Sun-Herald Taverner survey of 979 people across New South Wales and Victoria had earlier found Labor would likely win more than 20 seats from Howard's coalition -- four more than it needs to take power.
While analysts say Australia's involvement in the Iraq war will not be the dominant issue for voters, Howard's ouster would mark the fall of one of US President George W. Bush's last major allies in Iraq.
Other leaders of the "coalition of the willing" who have already gone or been toppled include former prime ministers Tony Blair of Britain, Jose Maria Aznar of Spain, Silvio Berlusconi of Italy and Poland's president Aleksander Kwasniewski.
Howard said while he was aware that his decision to send troops to Iraq was unpopular, he felt it was in Australia's national interest and that joining in a premature withdrawal would be perceived as a defeat.
Rudd, 50, a Mandarin-speaking Christian who is married to a self-made millionaire, said despite the government's scare campaign against him the greatest risk for the country was for nothing to change.
"Our country has a future too full of promise to allow a government that's been in office for 11 years, a government that's lost touch, and a government that's gone stale, just to continue on," he said.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he was confident the government could win because Australians were happy with the direction of the economy and the nation.
"And what we'll be reminding them is that to change the government is to change the country, to change the direction of the country," he said.
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