This Article is From Apr 05, 2009

UK blacks more interested in politics, thanks to 'Obama effect'

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London:

Barack Obama's election as the first African-American President of the United States has made blacks in Briton more interested in politics and optimistic about the scope for change, a research suggests.

A poll for the Hansard Society found that 42 per cent of black and ethnic minority respondents in Britain were interested in politics, against 27 per cent a year earlier.

Those who felt the British political system can bring change rose from 31 per cent to 41 per cent.

But black and ethnic minority Britons are still far less likely to vote compared to the population as a whole, BBC reported on its website, a day after Obama made his first overseas trip here to attend the G-20 Summit.

A recent report from Harvard and Manchester Universities concluded it would take several decades for there to be a black prime minister - arguing that the centralisation of the political system was a key barrier to progress.

But the Hansard Society, a political research charity, says Obama's successful White House campaign has had a clear positive impact on political attitudes among black and ethnic minority (BME) voters.

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