One of the things we were facing was the change of councils as a result of the municipal elections. We had to check our list and check it twice.

It's always hard when you're looking at infrastructure projects, because you're always going to be oversubscribed. One of the goals that we want to achieve in the next decade is sustainable environmental management - the best air and water quality that we can achieve.

This is a new program that we announced earlier this year. We asked communities to submit their applications, and of course, we were oversubscribed.

We were speaking with people who said it was cracking and leaking, and they were afraid it could fail. I guess that's why it was given a priority.

Are they committed to change? The answer is no. They have to give the impression of free and fair elections. But practically, they are very far from that.

If the political environment does not change, the outcome of the 2006 elections becomes increasingly a roll of the dice dependent on how the campaigns are run, party and interest group resources and the intensity of base voters to turn out to vote.