The move is expected to dilute the city's urban Democratic vote.

Yet the disparity was still as much as three urban votes to one rural vote.

And business leaders are not sure that the attacks are over, in part because of the ruling party's need to recapture the urban vote.

But the ban was approved, largely on the strength of urban votes.

Incomplete returns indicated that the urban vote was the key to the Socialist surge.

Was it the efforts to avoid stirring up the urban votes?

That year, the urban vote declined to 27.7 percent and the rural vote to 30.7.

He was said to have won because of the urban vote.

"If the Presidential campaign had shown some confidence and had worked harder to organize the urban vote, we could have pulled it off."

He added that "the entire young and urban vote is in revolt against Mosisili."