Kerry storms to victory in 'virtual' election

Democratic challenger Mr John Kerry has won a landslide victory over President George W

Democratic challenger Mr John Kerry has won a landslide victory over President George W. Bush in an online sample of the world's opinion on the race for the White House.

More than 113,000 people from 119 countries made their choice at www.globalvote2004.org, handing Mr Kerry a crushing win with 77 per cent of the vote.

But there was consolation for Mr Bush from what many would see as an unlikely source - the majority of virtual votes submitted from Iraq went to the incumbent.

The results of the non-official vote were released a day before Americans go to the polls in the real election.

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Opinion polls in the United States predict a dead heat between Mr Bush and Mr Kerry, but voters who had their say at Globalvote leaned strongly towards the challenger.

Third-party candidates, including independent Mr Ralph Nader, took nearly 14 per cent of the vote, while Mr Bush garnered a mere 9 per cent.

"Iraq was one of the few countries where Bush actually won and the Middle East voted 37 per cent for Bush compared to a world average of 9.1 per cent," a spokesman for Globalvote said.

"We're not trying to tell Americans how to vote, we're just giving them feedback from the rest of the world. The outcome of the real vote affects non-US citizens enormously in the post-9/11 age," he added.

Globalvote is a non-partisan, London-based site and not sponsored by any political party, its creators said.