Australian prime minister wins third term

By CNN's Grant Holloway

SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Australian Prime Minister John Howard's coalition government has won a third term of power, ending a race marked by scant differences between the leading parties on major issues.

With nearly 80 percent of the votes now counted, Howard's Liberal-National coalition looks set to hold a six to 10 seat majority in the 150-seat lower house of parliament.

The Australian Electoral Commission vote tally shows a 2.12 percent towards the government giving it 51.14 percent of the total vote after preferential votes are allocated.

Howard claimed victory around 11 p.m., Saturday local time (7 a.m. Friday EST) shortly after the leader of the opposition Australian Labor Party Kim Beazley conceded defeat.

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"I cannot express to you the honor and privilege of being elected prime minister of the greatest country in the world," Howard said in his victory speech to the party faithful in Sydney.

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"My resolve, my commitment, my dedication is to the service of the Australian people in the years ahead."

Referring to the terror attacks of September 11 and the war in Afghanistan, Howard said Australians had a duty to respond to those acts.

"Those terrible deeds were done to us as much as they were done to our American friends," he said.

Australia has committed more than 1,500 troops and naval and aircraft support to the U.S.-led retaliation.

The war against terrorism certainly played a part in determining Howard's victory, with many Australians reluctant to change administrations in such uncertain times.

The only other time a sitting government has been returned with an increased majority was in 1966 when Australia was committed to the war in Vietnam.

Immigration a key issue

The prime minister on Saturday also emphasized his hard-line ban on would-be boat refugees would be maintained, a policy which also played a key role in ensuring Howard's return.

Illegal immigration has made headlines in recent months with a series of attempts by asylum seekers to reach Australian shores from Indonesia.

In mid August a Norwegian freighter, the Tampa, carrying rescued asylum seekers was turned away from Australia by the Howard, and since then the government has adopted an electorally popular zero-tolerance policy on the issue.

That policy was supported by the Labor party, a seemingly costly move.

Older blue collar Labor voters drifted to the Coalition over the issue while younger, inner city voters defected to the Greens party which doubled its total vote to around 5 percent.

The asylum seeker issue also overshadowed Beazley's attempts to promote his domestic agenda of rolling back elements of the unpopular goods and services tax, and increased funding for education, health care and research.

Key issues that had figured heavily in the public debate in recent years -- such as reconciliation with Australia's indigenous Aborigines, the move to become a republic and relations with Asia -- received little attention during this election campaign.

Beazley resigns

Political commentators said Howard's hard-line immigration policy also neutralized the right-wing One Nation party, which made headlines in the late 1990s by advocating a ban on Asian immigration.

The One Nation vote collapsed Saturday, with most of its supporters returning to the Howard fold.

High profile One Nation leader Pauline Hanson looks to have failed in her bid to win a seat in Australia's upper house, the Senate.

Beazley resigned as Labor party leader after Saturday's defeat and looks set to be replaced by deputy leader Simon Crean, a former head of Australia's peak trade union body, the ACTU.

Howard is also not expected to serve out the full three year term as prime minister, with most analysts predicting he will stand down in 2003 to allow the deputy prime minister and national treasurer Peter Costello to take the reins.