It's been described as a 'dead heat in the nerd stakes'. Today's Australian election pitches the balding, cricket-obsessed prime minister, John Howard, against owlish technocrat, leader of
the opposition and all-round goody-two-shoes Kevin Rudd.
For months opinion polls have predicted that Mr Rudd's Labor Party will sweep the election, slamming the door on 11 years of Mr Howard's conservative coalition government. Desperate to rein in any perception of hubris within his party ranks, Mr Rudd has predicted the contest will be tight. If Labor was victorious with their 'Kevin07' campaign, it would be 'by a nose', he said.
But unless the country's pollsters have got it spectacularly wrong, the former diplomat and fluent Putonghua speaker is likely to be Australia's next prime minister by the end of today.
His popularity with voters appears to have increased, rather than diminished, by revelations that he once visited a New York lap-dancing club and that he sometimes nibbles on his own ear wax - an unsavoury habit which was caught on camera and became a massive YouTube hit.
His repeated insistence during the election campaign that he is an 'economic conservative', combined with his safe, sensible, almost nerdish demeanour appears to have struck a chord with Australians.
During a bruising election campaign, the 68-year-old prime minister's tired and rattled appearance has contrasted with the slick, almost presidential performance of Mr Rudd, 50, whose shock of silvery blond hair, round face and spectacles have earned him the nicknames Harry Potter and Tintin.
