Americans in NZ 'in knots' over election

1.00pm

Some Americans living in New Zealand have got their stomachs "in knots" over who will win the United States presidential election.

They agree with the pundits - it's just too close to call.

Waikato University's marketing and international management associate professor Carolyn Costley voted for John Kerry.

Her father is a life-long Democrat and Prof Costley said she never believed George Bush was smart enough for the position.

"I think it will be so close to call that it will be barely measurable. I anticipate weeks of recounting and legal haggling."

Waikato Management School professor Ted Zorn said his stomach had been in a knot for a while about the elections.

"I desperately want Kerry to win, or more accurately, I want Bush to lose, but I'm not optimistic," he said.

"I find it hard to believe that Bush could get elected again. It's difficult to see much in his record that would merit a second term.

"The economy has been weak, the war in Iraq has been a disaster, America's reputation in the world is probably at an all-time low."

Joan Nanartowicz, who works at Fulton Hogan Waikato, has been living in New Zealand since February.

She voted for Kerry.

"Bush is an idiot, and I really think that Kerry has it. Bush is controlling the media and telling everyone that it is going to be close, but I don't think it will be. In reality, Kerry will win," she said.

But Dr Scott Koslow, a senior lecturer at Waikato University and his wife Trish have voted for Bush.

"What he's done in Iraq and Afghanistan is the right thing to do. Bush has also done an acceptable job with the economy," he said.

Terry Shagin, who has been in New Zealand for 20 years, wants to see John Kerry win in what he said today was probably the most important American election in the last 40 years.

"Because the current president has taken the United States on a unilateral course which means that a small group of people are deciding what the only major power in the world left does, and I think that is dangerous."

He said Kerry was more likely to take into consideration the views of the United Nations and to seek consensus before heading off on a game plan.

There would be a lot more people out voting in this election than in recent years, he said. "I know a number of people who haven't voted in years because they didn't think it was important enough."

The one advantage of the last election was it had shown people how important it was to vote, he said.

Rosemary Giles, who has been living in New Zealand since 1990, sent in her absentee ballot a couple of weeks ago, with a big tick for Kerry.

She said she saw him as the lesser of two evils, since the American system tended to throw forward "middle of the road, mediocre candidates".

However, it was important to ensure a change of leader. "I really don't like the way George Bush is running America," she said.


- NZPA