HONG KONG, Dec 20 (AFP) - Election fever swept Asia in 2004 with more than one billion people going to the polls, but the familiar beasts of unrest, terrorism, disease and extreme weather continued to blight the region.
After a rollercoaster few years Asia's economy showed sustained growth in 2004 and a barrage of free trade deals were signed by Southeast Asian nations determined not to swept aside by the world's largest trading blocs.
Elections were held in 11 countries and territories around Asia, with ordinary Asians -- including millions of first-timers -- flocking to cast their ballot and, in some cases, delivering shock defeats for incumbent leaders.
Megawati Sukarnoputri was ousted as Indonesian president by former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, while in India a coalition led by Sonia Gandhi's Congress party defeated Atal Behari Vajapayee's ruling Hindu nationalists -- although the Italian-born leader declined to become prime minister in favour of Manmohan Singh.
Several incumbents were returned to office with a resounding vote of confidence, while others clung to power amid controversy.
Malaysians overwhelmingly re-elected moderate Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, while Australians returned Prime Minister John Howard for a fourth term with a landslide majority.
South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun secured his political survival after a court overturned his impeachment by the National Assembly, Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian was re-elected by a margin of just 0.2 percent after being mysteriously shot on the eve of the March poll, and Philippines President Gloria Arroyo won May elections that were bitterly disputed by the opposition.
Afghanistan held its first ever free elections in October with women and men turning out to vote in a poll which took place without major bloodshed, more than half voting for incumbent Hamid Karzai to give him a landslide win.
Democracy has yet to reach China -- which this year dismissed calls for universal suffrage in its territory Hong Kong -- but political changes in Beijing saw former leader Jiang Zemin step down as military chief to hand President Hu Jintao complete power of the communist country.
In military dictatorship Myanmar Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt was sacked and placed under house arrest for corruption. In Singapore Lee Hsien Loong, son of the city-state's father of independence Lee Kuan Yew, succeeded Goh Chok Tong as prime minister in August.
Malaysia's former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim was freed in September after six years in jail on a corruption charge when the country's highest court overturned a separate conviction and nine-year sentence for sodomy.
Cambodia's King Norodom Sihanouk abdicated in October while in self-imposed exile in Beijing, and was replaced on the throne by his son Norodom Sihamoni, while the country's top two political parties finally formed a coalition government after a year's stalemate.
In Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf made a controversial U-turn by announcing he would stay on as army chief, while Shaukat Aziz was elected prime minister by parliament in August days after sruving an assassination attempt.
But for leaders new and old familiar problems remained.
Six-way talks involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the US aimed at halting North Korea's nuclear weapons drive stalled after a third round in June. Pyongyang has refused to return citing US hostility and South Korea's admission it had conducted past experiments with uranium and plutonium.
At a landmark summit in January nuclear rivals India and Pakistan announced they would resume a peace dialogue in February, with subsequent cricket and hockey series between the countries confirming a warming of ties.
President Musharraf in November floated surprise proposals to resolve the Kashmir dispute, but India rejected any notion of re-drawing the borders of the disputed Himalayan region as the 15-year-old insurgency rumbled on, claiming hundreds more lives throughout 2004.
Violence persisted in Afghanistan with a spate of bombings, kidnaps and guerrilla attacks on US and Afghan forces as insurgencies and warlordism plagued the newly democratic country.
Thailand saw an upsurge in Muslim unrest in its southeast, with five security forces and 108 Muslim militants killed during an April uprising. Six months later 87 Muslim protesters died during and after the break-up of riots by security forces.
The Philippines suffered its worst terrorist outrage in February when Abu Sayyaf militants bombed the 10,192-ton Superferry 14 vessel at the mouth of Manila bay killing over 100, while a suicide blast at the Australian embassy in the Indonesian capital Jakarta in September left 11 dead. The attack was blamed on the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah regional extremist group.
Japan sent 550 troops to Iraq -- the first deployment to an area of active fighting since adopting pacifism after World War II.
The country also suffered its deadliest typhoon in a quarter-century, with 79 killed -- soon after the worst earthquake in nine years had claimed 40 lives -- as extreme weather battered the region.
Floods in Bangladesh in July and August killed more than 700 and left hundreds of thousands homeless. A series of storms in the northern Philippines in November and December left more than 1,100 dead or missing.
No sooner had the region recovered from the deadly 2003 outbreak of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) than bird flu returned, with 32 people dying in Thailand and Vietnam and numerous outbreaks in poultry flocks around the region.
On the economic front there was greater stability in the region, with many countries, including giants India and China, experiencing sustained growth. China successfully cooled its overheating economy and raised interest rates for the first time in almost a decade.
India's markets got jittery after the country's election and on May 17 the stock market plunged 11.14 percent or 564.16 points to 4,505.16, its biggest one-day slide for 12 years, but has since recovered the lost ground.
Japan's economic recovery was confirmed over 2004 but ended the year on a weaker note, suggesting a slower start to 2005.
Regional economic integration was stepped up, with Australia finalising free trade deals with the United States and Thailand and beginning talks for a similar deal with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
ASEAN members agreed to phased economic integration and also signed a trade pact with China to pave the way for the world's biggest free-trade zone by 2010.
12/20/2004 12:40 GMT - AFP