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WASHINGTON: Florida will not redo its voided US presidential
primary, the state’s Democratic Party announced Monday, further
convoluting an agonizingly close nomination contest between rivals
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
The latest delegate impasse heightens concern
that the brawl to see who will face off against Republican nominee
John McCain in November will play out on the floor of the Democratic
National Convention (DNC) in August, when the appearance of a
divided party could hurt Democrats’ chances at ousting Republicans
from the White House.
“We researched every potential alternative
process, from caucuses to county conventions to mail-in elections,
but no plan could come anywhere close to being viable in Florida,”
Congresswoman Karen Thurman, chairwoman of the Florida Democratic
Party, said in a memo to voters.
“We made a detailed case to the DNC Rules and
Bylaws Committee, but we were denied.”
The decision also leaves Democratic leaders
scrambling over Michigan, which, like Florida, was stripped of its
delegates to the convention because the two states violated party
rules by moving the dates of their presidential primaries forward to
January.
Even if Florida and Michigan’s total 313
delegates were counted somehow, neither Clinton nor Obama would
appear likely to cross the finish line of 2,025 delegates needed to
secure the Democratic nomination.
-- AFP
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