Prime Minister John Howard on Sunday called general elections for November 24 that will decide whether Australia will start bringing home its troops from Iraq, the Associated Press reported. Howard, Australia's second-longest serving leader, faces a tough battle to win a fifth term in office against Labor Party opposition leader Kevin Rudd, a Chinese-speaking former diplomat who for months has held a commanding lead in opinion polls. The election date was widely expected, and comes after months of intense unofficial campaigning. Howard on Sunday sought to place the guardianship of Australia's more than 15-year economic boom as the key campaign issue. «People must decide in the weeks ahead who is better able to not only to preserve the prosperity that we now have, but also to build it further and to make sure that it is fairly shared throughout the Australian community,» Howard told a news conference. «Love me or loathe me, the Australian people know where I stand on all the major issues of importance to their future,» he said. Rudd responded by saying Australia needed new leadership to capitalize on the economic boom. «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,» Rudd told a press conference.
