Republican may lose control of Congress in poll next month

Washington, Oct 10 (UNI) The United States Republican Party may lose its decade-old control of the US Congress - 435-member House of Representatives and 100-member Senate-in the November 7 mid- term elections, for a variety of reasons, including a sex scandal involving one of its lawmaker Mark Foley.

The opposition Democratic has regained a commanding position going into the final weeks of the election campaign, according to a Washington Post-ABC news poll.

The daily quoted Republican campaign officials saying that they expect to lose at least seven to 30 seats in the elections, as a result of sustained violence in Iraq and the sex scandal.

It says two weeks of virtually nonstop controversy over President Bush's war policy and House Speaker J Dennis Hastert's handling of the sex scandal have forced party leaders to recalculate their vulnerability and placed a growing number of Republican incumbents and open seats at much greater risk.

The Democratic Party requires 15 seats to take back control of the House which has been under the Republican domination since 1994.

According to the survey, by a margin of 54 per cent to 41 per cent, registered voters said they plan to vote for the Democrat over the Republican.

President George W Bush's approval rating, which rose to 42 per cent in September after an anti-terrorism offensive marking the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, also registered 39 per cent in the latest poll, the survey said.

It, however, said a Democratic takeover of the House is not a foregone conclusion, because the reorganisation of the constituencies gave huge advantages to incumbents. Democrats also admit that their internal polls show that the fallout from the Foley sex scandal is confined to half a dozen races. Moreover, House elections are traditionally shaped by local issues and personalities.

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