"If you can get the Russians, you can move the Chinese to an abstention," he said, noting that China usually only exercises its veto on issues involving Taiwan or the use of force.
When a committee of politicians takes a vote, abstention is still a political statement by ostensibly refusing to get involved, the abstaining politician is nevertheless stating her position.
And in Boyle's programmes, you get that not only in his jokes, but also played straight, in a sequence where he justifies his abstention policy.
Because today's vote -- 44 to 14, with 16 abstentions -- fell four votes short of a three-fifths majority, the 80-member Assembly must vote again on the measure early next year to get it on the ballot next November.
Not a closed book Economics on the net Feminism is motherhood Through a glass darkly How to get a boy Money can buy it ReprintsIn Renaissance Italy, it turns out, there was no end of advice as to how to get them: would-be parents of sons should eschew strong drink, endure abstention to build up their strength and then have intercourse early in the day.
Netanyahu is particularly infuriated by America's abstention, and has accused the Obama administration, with which he has had a tumultuous relationship for the last eight years, of collaborating with the Palestinians to get the resolution passed.
When the "stalking donkey", Anthony Meyer, stood against her in 1989, she had a good campaign team in place, but the whips warned her that on top of the handful of votes Meyer got, there were all the abstentions, spoiled ballots and dozens of MPs who had to be arm-twisted into supporting her.
Some are sponsored by religious institutions, some are independent, but more than half are affiliated with Oxford House Inc., a national organization that promotes recovery through mutual support among residents of sober houses and abstention from the temptations that got them in trouble in the first place, hence the preference for single family houses outside of urban areas.
With the highest rate of abstention France has ever seen, Mr. Chirac got 19.67 percent of the vote, Mr. Le Pen 17.02 percent and Mr. Jospin trailed with 16.07 percent.
But last month Dell raised his offer price, tacked on a special-dividend sweetener, and got the board to change voting rules so that abstentions no longer count against him – turning the tide in his favour.
