Voters in Gibraltar go to the polls today in an election that has all but ignored the tiny British colony's dominant political issue, the claim by Spain, nearly 300 years old, to "The Rock".
Gibraltar's Chief Minister, Mr Peter Caruana, leader of the Social Democrats, is favoured in opinion polls to win a second four-year term and improve on the 52 per cent share of the vote he received in 1996.
Mr Caruana has defied claims by his rivals in the last general election that he would be soft in dealing with Spain and its unflinching campaign to win back Gibraltar, the port at the mouth of the Mediterranean that it lost to Britain in 1713. Polls have shown the population of Gibraltar overwhelmingly in favour of remaining in British hands.