Political News Chronology:
January 2000
05/01/00 - APDY Surfers Paradise Convention APD Youth representatives meet during the Young Liberal Federal Convention in Surfers Paradise, Australia.
16/01/00 - Chilean Presidential Election Left wing candidate Ricardo Lagos won the Chilean Presidential Election in a close second round ballot. Lagos had expected to win outright in the first ballot. Opponent Joaquin Lavin achieved the best result for the right-wing parties since democracy was restored in 1990.
21/01/00 - Bush gets record vote in Iowa Governor George W Bush the Republican Presidential candidate has topped the field in the first primary contest of 2000. He is the first Republican to ever get over 40% in an Iowa primary. However the approaching race in New Hampshire will be a lot tougher as Bush tries to compete with John McCain for moderate Republican votes and independent votes, whilst still facing strong competition from several staunch conservative Republicans.
February 2000
01/02/00 - Presidential Frontrunner Stumbles in New Hampshire Senator John McCain scored an upset win over Governor George Bush in the latest Republican primary race. Fortunes have changed quickly for the frontrunner George Bush, despite the advantage of the largest fund-raising ever for a political primary.
19/02/00 Bush Recovers in South Carolina The Bush campaign have learnt some lessons from their previous loss and spent heavily to ensure victory in South Carolina. While the McCain campaign lacks any grass roots foundations, there remain weaknesses in the Bush campaign which need fixing.
March 2000
07/03/00 McCain Withdraws, Bush Set to Win Republican Primary On the Super Tuesday primary, George W Bush and Al Gore won their respective contests by strong margins. Just two day later, Senator Bradley withdrew from the Democrat primary, followed an hour later by Senator McCain who pulled out of the Republican primary.
23/03/00 Young National Policy Convention In Wellington, the nation's capital, the New Zealand Young Nationals held their annual policy convention. The President of the APD Youth attended as an observer and addressed the delegates. See also the Wellington Declaration, issued by the APD Youth.
April 2000
09/04/00 Peruvian Election On Sunday, Peruvians voted in a tight Presidential contest between incumbent President Alberto Fujimori and challenger Alejandro Toledo. The close result means that a "Run-off" election must be held the following month between the two contenders.
May 2000
28/05/00 Peruvian Election President Alberto Fujimori has been resoundingly re-elected with around 50.1% of the ballots, against only 16.5% going to his rival. About 32.4% of ballots were spoiled at the urging of the opponent left-wing candidate. Of the valid votes, Fujimori has 76.8% and has secured a third consecutive term.
June 2000
25/06/00 Japan's Ruling Coalition has returned to power, with a total 271 seats shared between the Liberal Democratic Party, the Komeito and the Conservative Party. Some defeated LDP candidates have criticised Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, attributing their loss of constituencies to his leadership. After the vote, Mori said that there would be few changes to international or economic policies.
July 2000
02/07/00 Mexican Election For the first time in seven decades the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has been defeated in a relatively free and fair ballot. The election of Presidential candidate Vicente Fox is a fantastic result for his Centre Right party, the National Action Party (PAN). See the pre-election seminar run by the Heritage Foundation.
17/07/00 Leak of Third Way Memo A top level memo written by British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been leaked to the media. His email reveals that the Third Way is not only mimicking Conservative economic policy, but also taking its leads from Conservative Party social policy.
August 2000
18/08/00 Class Warfare Rhetoric The US Democratic Party annointed Al Gore as its presidential candidate in a Convention that appealed to the party's left wing. Class warfare rhetoric was prominent in several speeches, including in Al Gore's own address. Meanwhile, Democratic Party Delegates booed guests from the Boy Scouts, and dumped a guest speaker over another botched fundraising incident.
November 2000
07/11/00 Presidential Result in Turmoil The US Presidential election night produced no clear outcome. Initial results suggested that Democrat Party candidate, Vice President Al Gore, had captured several key swing states in a close national outcome. However as further ballots were counted, Republican George W Bush regained the crucial state of Florida, and with it the Presidency. Vice President Gore telephoned Governor Bush and privately conceded defeat, before leaving to make a public concession speech. However minutes before the announced concession speech, the Vice President phoned the Governor to retract his concession. This was to be the beginning of 5 weeks of ballot recounts and bad-sportsmanship by the left-wing Democratic Party.
