Fuentes is far too shrewd to think that an electoral horse race, no matter how hotly contested, is enough to make a novel — unless, that is, he can eroticize his story's politics and somehow persuade us to see every move in this complex presidential game as a tactic of courtship, a bit of foreplay, a whispered intimacy.
A1 Berlusconi Suffers Setback Silvio Berlusconi's fight to remain prime minister of Italy suffered a possibly fatal blow, after the Interior Ministry announced that there were not enough contested ballots to overturn the thin victory of his challenger, Romano Prodi.
The NLD said its tally of results posted at polling stations showed it was on track to take more than two-thirds of seats that were contested in parliament, enough to form Myanmar's first democratically elected government since the early 1960s.
Even a small group of undecided voters could significantly change a close, narrowly contested race by breaking sharply enough near Election Day.
In a strong showing from New England to the South, the Midwest and the Rocky Mountains, the Republicans held on to all but one of their closely contested seats, and knocked off enough Democratic incumbents to foil the Democrats' attempts to keep control.
Instead, those first Olympic medals were contested in pools only deep enough for a spot of advanced wading.
The Democratic Party, led by Pohiva, won 12 of the 17 contested seats, although they were not enough to allow the party to form an outright majority.
With most districts reporting final results, the Democrats trailed the opposition Liberal Democrats, failing to win enough of the 121 contested seats to gain a controlling majority in the chamber.
"We have won a tight, fiercely contested match and we've shown enough bottle and composure at the penalty kicks.
