Democratic party meets on Florida, Michigan delegates
The Democratic party on Saturday held a crucial meeting to decide how to seat Florida and Michigan delegates in the party convention in August which will finalise its presidential nominee.
By PTI |
New York: The Democratic party on Saturday held a crucial meeting to decide how to seat Florida and Michigan delegates in the party convention in August which will finalise its presidential nominee.
The outcome of the meeting could be deciding factor for Hillary Clinton who is fighting with back to the wall for the nomination with Barack Obama leading the delegates count.
The Democratic leadership met for six hours in Washington to thrash out a compromise but failed and the 30-member rules committee had no choice but to start the explosive hearing.
Both Obama and Clinton campaigns would present their cases before the committee which is chaired by Howard Dean and then it would decide the full view of cameras what to do with the delegates of the two states which violated party rules by holding primaries ahead of schedule and thus forfeited their delegates.
One compromise being touted was that each delegate from Florida and Michigan has half a vote to ensure that they are seated and punished simultaneously.
Obama currently has 1984 delegates including 1661 pledged or elected and 323 the so called super delegates or elected party officials. Clinton is trailing with 1782 including 1499 pledged and 283 super delegates.
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Both Clinton and Obama were on the ballot in Florida but only Clinton was in Michigan, all other candidates having withdrawn from the contest. As the committee began hearing in Washington, Clinton supporters were present outside the venue in strength demanding that all delegates from the two States be seated.
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