by Maja Gojkovic

Spain hosted its first televised electoral debate in 15 years. The debate went down a storm and had an estimated 13 million viewers glued to their TV sets. The debate saw the clash between José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the prime minister, and the opposition leader Mariano Rajoy.

The debate was almost as popular as past football finals between top Spanish clubs and their European opponents and at one point the country saw 60% of televisions tuned in to the debate.

The debate was the first in 15 years with the last televised clash being in 1993 between Felipe González, the socialist reformer, and José María Aznar, the conservative who went on to lead the country between 1996 and 2004.

On March 9 th the Spanish Public will see the result, either another four years of Mr Zapatero’s Socialist party (PSOE), or a return to the Popular party led by Mr Aznar’s successor.

Currently PSOE are in the lead according to the polls although in recent days the votes have narrowed. Monday night’s debate will have a repeat run which will be aired next Monday. Next Monday’s debate could see the result and be decisive in mobilizing PSOE supporters who are thinking of abstaining. According to analysts the party(PSOE) needs a turnout of close to 75 per cent to win enough seats to claim victory.

PSOE was yesterday declared the winner in the first round although according to analysts Mr Rajoy campaign had proved surprisingly effective where his aim is to portray Spain as a country that is on the verge of recession and overrun by immigrants.

by Chris Read

The biggest day so far in the race for the White House has seen John McCain pull ahead in the Republican contest while Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama remain neck and neck.

Millions of US voters turned out on Super Tuesday to have their say on who will battle it out for the presidency.

Recent exit polls suggest Mrs Clinton has won the major prize of California.

She has already taken seven states and the dependency of American Samoa, while Mr Obama looks to have taken 13 states, including his home state of Illinois.

I have to admit I don’t know too much about the voting system in the US (watching the West Wing has helped slightly!) but with a little help from various news sources this morning I have learn it is not the number of states won but the number of candidates that is the key to winning the nomination.

The Democrats tend to use a form of proportional representation, where the number of delegates for each candidate depends on the percentage of the vote they receive in the state. California has 370 Democrat delegates up for grabs.

At the moment Clinton has 760 delegates backing her at the Democratic Party convention in the summer while Obama has 693.

A candidate needs 2,025 delegates to secure the nomination. won but the number of candidates that is the key to winning the nomination.

The Republican contest is more straightforward as the party favours a first-past-the-post system - win the state and you take most of the state’s delegates.

That puts John McCain well ahead. McCain currently has 570 delegates, Mr Romney 251 and Mr Huckabee 175, with the winning post set at 1,191.

Without knowing all the major issues in the US at the moment and what each candidate is standing up for I am going to go for Obama purely based on a reports saying he has been following the mighty West Ham over the past few years since a trip to London. I clearly am aware this is not the best way of deciding who I feel should be running to control one of the worlds true superpowers so I think I will be doing some research over the coming weeks.

Any feedback on who you think I should be following and why, would be appreciated!