Australia Votes 2007: Roundup - Come in Mr Howard, your time is up!

So, the Australian electorate has spoken, and they told John Howard it was time to retire, not just as premier, but also from politics. This is despite the fact that no count has been completed yet and most are no further along than about 75-80% complete.

There are some seats that are too close to call, such as Bowman, where after 78% of the votes have been counted, the Liberal and Labor candidates are neck and neck. There is a hair's breadth between them and this one will go right down to the wire.

Peter Lindsay could be out of his seat in Herbert in Queensland, but the margin between them is so narrow, that no victory declaration can be made yet. At the moment though, Labour's George Colbran has a slender 0.2% lead.

In La Trobe in Victoria, Jason Wood (Lib) lloks like he might just hold on, but his lead over Labor's Rodney Cocks is just 0.4%, and still too close to call, with just under 75% of the vote counted.

In Macarthur in New South Wales, Liberal's Pat Farmer is so far holding on, despite an 11% swing to Labour candidate Nick Bleasdale. A miniscule 0.2% is all that separates the two candidates. The seat does have an uncanny history of going with the government, despite it being a Liberal stronghold.

Liberal Fran Bailey, who was previously the Minister for Small Business and Tourism, may just hold on to the McEwen seat in Victoria, but with a slender 0.4% lead, and over 25% of the votes still to be counted, the result is far from certain yet.

To the Northern Territories we go, and the seat of Solomon, where Labor's Damian Hale could unseat Liberal's David Tollner. But with a lead of only 0.4% and only 73% of the votes counted, there is still time for Tollner.

In Western Australia in the seat known as Swan, the sititng MP, Labor's Kim Wilkie, is in a tussle with Liberal's Steve Irons, who holds a tiny 0.2% lead, with just over 25% of the vote still to be counted.

These however are the stragglers. There are some Senate seats to be decided too, but to all intents and purposes, the result is known, we are just waiting to find out the exact margin of victory.

For John Howard, it was a very bad night. Not only did his premiership end, but his political career too. He joins Stanley Melbourne Bruce as the only other sitting Australian Prime Minister to lose his seat at a general election. Bruce lost his seat, Flinders, back in 1929, when the government went from being Nationalist Party to being a Labor goverment.

It will mean a new leader will have to be selected for the Liberal party. That will be one of the big stories over the following weeks and months.

The other will be following Kevin Rudd as he settles in as the new Australian Prime Minister. People across Australia and all over the world, will be watching events with great interest, as Kevin Rudd begins his term in office. What will the initial priorites of the Rudd government be? Time will tell.