If the world could vote...

IF THE rest of the world could take part in the US presidential election, Democratic Party candidate Barack Obama would win four times more votes than his Republican rival John McCain.

In surveys conducted by the Gallup Organisation in 70 countries representing nearly half the world’s population, 30% of people said they would choose Obama as president against 8% who said they preferred McCain.

A majority of Europeans in 14 countries said they wanted an Obama victory, with the Dutch and Norwegians the strongest Obama supporters in Europe: nearly three-quarters in both countries said they preferred him to McCain.