Election Results

Hampstead's incumbent mayor and two incumbent councilmen, who won re-election by narrow margins, will be sworn in for further four-year terms at tonight's Town Council meeting.For Mayor Christopher M. Nevin and Councilmen Stephen A. Holland and Lawrence H. Hentz, victory in Tuesday's municipal election means the opportunity to "continue pushing forward with ongoing projects," Nevin said.The mayor was alluding to their goals of completing the new police station, improving the water system, revitalizing the Main Street business district downtown, making progress on the development of the town bypass, and continuing a balanced approach to growth.

Election results have been overturned in the NAACP's Baltimore County branch after an investigation by the national organization found the chapter president was not a member.In a March 18 letter, Dennis C. Hayes, the NAACP general counsel, ordered Patricia Cook-Ferguson and her Cabinet removed from office and barred her from running in the next round of elections because she has not been a dues-paying member since 1997.The branch must hold new elections for all offices and executive committee positions by April 30, said Nelson B. Rivers III, national field operations director for the Baltimore-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton stayed in the shadows yesterday, but much of the drama and suspense of yesterday's elections centered squarely on his fate.While not on any ballot, Clinton was as much on the minds of election analysts -- if not voters -- as any of the candidates around the country. And he potentially had as much at stake.Even though the public had expressed deep disinterest in the scandal that has threatened Clinton's presidency and evolved into an impeachment inquiry, the election results are likely to be read as a referendum on Clinton's future and directive to the House Judiciary Committee, which is to begin preliminary impeachment hearings next week.

With the election two weeks away, Gov. Parris N. Glendening has released the first television commercial to focus on the civil rights and abortion records of Republican challenger Ellen R. Sauerbrey. A new ad released yesterday again criticizes her environmental record.What the ads say: In the 30-second spot on civil rights and abortion, five votes are noted, ranging from the FairHousing Act of 1991, which Sauerbrey opposed, and an amendment to a 1983 abortion bill, in which she is described as voting "to deny abortion to poor women even in cases of rape and incest."

ON THE NIGHT comedian Ellen DeGeneres held her much-watched television "coming out" party last week, a celebration of an entirely different stripe took place in Baltimore County for another well-known Ellen in these parts -- Sauerbrey, that is. The Republican formally launched her 1998 run for the governorship with a large fund-raiser and a softer, kinder conservative image.From the day she lost her court challenge to the 1994 election results, Ms. Sauerbrey started stumping the state, thirsting for a re-match against Democratic Gov. Parris N. Glendening.

WASHINGTON -- The smashing victory of what's left of "the Left" in Great Britain, and obvious similarities between Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bill Clinton, should not obscure the fact that both leaders are like small boys playing in the big puddles left by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.In Washington, the Democratic president has a knack for winning, or seeming to win, one small battle after another in confrontations and negotiations with Republican congressional leaders.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia -- Not a single Muslim is believed to live in the eastern Bosnian city of Srebrenica. Thousands fled, or were killed, when Bosnian Serb gunmen seized the enclave more than two years ago in what human rights officials call Europe's worst atrocity since World War II.But, based on municipal election results released yesterday, Srebrenica has voted for a city council with a Muslim majority.Victory by Muslim candidates in Srebrenica, and in several other eastern Bosnian municipalities purged violently of non-Serbs, was made possible because refugees were allowed to cast ballots in races in their prewar hometowns.

An Anne Arundel Circuit judge yesterday threw out a suit filed by the former president of the county NAACP aimed at reversing the results of a 1995 election she narrowly lost.Judge Eugene M. Lerner ruled that he lacked jurisdiction over Jean A. Creek's suit because Maryland judges are barred from second-guessing decisions of an out-of-state entity such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People."Maryland Courts lack subject matter jurisdiction when the internal affairs of a foreign [out-of-state]

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- In an apparent breakthrough for opponents of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, a court has ordered opposition election victories to be restored in Serbia's second-largest city.It was the first victory by the opposition after 28 days of massive street demonstrations against Milosevic, and it appeared to be an attempt by the Serbian leader to neutralize the protest movement challenging his regime.A decision by the Milosevic-backed elections commission to annul municipal elections lost by his Socialist Party on Nov. 17 triggered the largest and longest series of anti-government rallies in Serbia in more than 50 years.

ELLEN SAUERBREY'S challenge of the election results is not getting universal praise from her supporters, as evident in this recent editorial from The Hagerstown Daily Mail:"Parris Glendening, who's already planned inaugural festivities and a parade to mark his swearing-in as Maryland's governor, had better not rent that tuxedo yet. Republican foe Ellen Sauerbrey is filing suit to challenge the results of the election, which it (so far) appears that Glendening won by less than 6,000 votes."

WASHINGTON - Congress now has so few moderate Republicans that at least in the Senate they could squeeze into a Volkswagen Beetle. Their ranks have been severely reduced in recent elections. Those who remain in politics have been marginalized by their own party, which has inexorably veered to the right in the past generation. But now this beleaguered minority has an opportunity to wield outsized influence on what President-elect Barack Obama can accomplish in Congress. Although Democrats made big congressional gains in the 2008 election, they are still a vote or two short of the 60-vote majority they need in the Senate to keep a tight rein on GOP filibusters that can easily gum up the works.

If you thought the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 were cliffhangers, how about the election of 1916 that faced off incumbent Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic candidate, against the Republican Party's nominee, Charles Evans Hughes, former associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Several days before the election, The Sun published an article reporting that an agreement had been reached with the Gas and Electric Co. and that the election results would be announced throughout the city by the blinking of the 5,643 electric lights that lined Baltimore's streets and alleys.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- As the toll of Zimbabwe opposition supporters injured in post-election violence rose to more than 200 yesterday, neighboring South Africa hardened its position on the crisis, calling for the speedy release of election results. South African government spokesman Themba Maseko described the situation in Zimbabwe as "dire." "When elections are held and results are not released two weeks after, it is obviously of great concern," Maseko said, referring to the March 29 presidential election in Zimbabwe.

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- The main opposition party and independent observers said yesterday that President Robert G. Mugabe was suffering a resounding defeat as election results were tallied, but no official returns were released and the capital was rife with speculation that they were being rigged. Tension was high in Harare, with police deployed on most corners as the delay in announcing results from Saturday's balloting wore on. Usually, the first official results are released within hours of the polls closing.

Last week's election results in Pakistan give Islamabad's next government the mandate to finally put the terrorists out of business. Violence in Pakistan - mostly driven by Taliban and pro-al-Qaida forces - has not abated since the December assassination of leading opposition candidate and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. But in a potential hinge moment for what Newsweek recently called "the most dangerous nation in the world," Pakistani public opinion has turned suddenly and decisively against the radicals.

NAIROBI, Kenya -- The American government took its toughest position yet on Kenya's disputed elections yesterday, calling on Kenya's president and opposition leaders to meet immediately and saying that the election was so flawed that it was impossible to know who really won. "The United States cannot conduct business as usual in Kenya," said the statement, written by Jendayi E. Frazer, assistant secretary of state for African affairs. Kenya, an American ally, receives hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid each year.

Final unofficial election results, compiled Friday by the county elections board, changed no outcomes but narrowed Democrat Martin O'Malley's victory to a tight 677-vote edge over Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. in the gubernatorial race. County voters were kinder to other Democrats. Benjamin L. Cardin won the U.S. Senate contest with a nearly 10,000-vote edge over Michael S. Steele, and Democrats running for state comptroller and attorney general had even larger victory margins.

The biggest winners in last week's election were the enemies of the United States, who see the results as confirmation of one of their doctrines: The U.S. is weak and does not have the commitment to fight a protracted war. There is no talk of a new strategy on their side. They don't hold elections to replace their leadership with people who will negotiate and compromise with the United States or the elected Iraqi government. Their media do not carry voices calling for a new approach to the war. America's enemies are gloating more than Democrats.

A mandate for end to divisive politics I believe that the 2006 election results are a mandate for a government that is not divisive of its citizens more than it is for the glory of any political party ("A rough road lies ahead for Bush," Nov. 8). Great presidents such as Franklin Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln presided over, inspired and led this nation during events such as the Civil War, the Great Depression and World War II. They told us that a house divided cannot stand and that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

MINSK, Belarus -- Thousands of demonstrators gathered here last night even as President Alexander Lukashenko seemed assured of an overwhelming re-election victory, as unofficial results showed him receiving more than 80 percent of the vote and his nearest competitor about 2 percent. Supporters of the main opposition candidate, Alexander Milinkevich, dismissed those figures, pointing to different polling data that indicated Lukashenko had failed to receive the 50 percent necessary to avoid a runoff.