INDIA: India's President Abdul Kalam has dissolved parliament, paving the way for early polls which outgoing MPs hoped would not clash with the upcoming cricket tour of Pakistan, the first in 14 years.
Staggered polling is expected to start some time in April when the Indian cricket team is scheduled to tour Pakistan.
The independent Election Commission will soon meet to determine the massive elections schedule in which 650 million voters are eligible to cast their ballots.
Politicians are concerned that voters in the cricket-crazy country would opt to watch the series on television rather than brave the summer heat to go out and vote. The outgoing Hindu nationalist-led coalition led by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party, the BJP, will clash with the main Opposition Congress party for control of the 545-member parliament.
The BJP wants to "encash" their self-professed "feel-good factor" stemming from economic growth triggered by low interest rates and a stock market that has registered its best ever performance. It is also bolstered by its recent victories in three state elections and the Congress party's disarray.
"The party plans on making economic development its main electoral plank," a senior member said. The BJP's recent peace moves with neighbouring nuclear rival Pakistan are also expected to feature on the campaign trail.
"Normally in elections, there is an anti-incumbency factor against the ruling party," deputy prime minister Mr Lal Kishen Advani referring to voters' traditional unhappiness against the party in power, said. Mr Advani, seen as a possible successor to the 79-year-old ailing President Vajpayee who has often talked of retiring, said this time round there was a mood favouring the "incumbents".
In a separate development, neighbouring Sri Lanka's fragile peace bid with the Tamil Tiger guerrillas and reconstruction from decades of war were plunged into uncertainty yesterday after President Chandrika Kumaratunga sacked parliament and called elections nearly four years ahead of schedule.
President Kumaratunga dissolved the legislature and set an April 2nd date for polls after months of wrangling with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe over how to end civil war waged by the Tamil Tigers for an independent homeland in the island republics north and east that has claimed over 60,000 lives since 1972. Mrs Kumaratunga's calling of the third parliamentary election since 2000 came despite international pressure on her to compromise with Mr Wickremesinghe. The two are from different parties and were elected separately in tense campaigns.