Democratic leaders leave Obama, Clinton to decide on Florida convention delegates

Source: Xinhua | 04-03-2008 08:11

WASHINGTON, April 2 (Xinhua) -- It would be up to two Democratic presidential candidates whether Florida could seat their delegates at the party's nomination convention, the Democratic National Committee announced on Wednesday.

The chairman, Howard Dean, said that he met with the state's lawmakers in a discussion on ways of allocating delegates to Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who are currently tied in a close presidential nomination race.

The meeting concluded that the delegates could be seated at the party's national convention in late August as long as any agreement is supported by the two candidates.

Florida was stripped of its total 210 delegates for violating the DNC's rule by moving forward with its primary date before the Super Tuesday on Feb. 5. Michigan also lost its 156 delegates for the same reason.

However, Clinton beat Obama in the Florida primary on Jan. 29 by 50 percent to 33 percent. Altogether, Obama led the race by now with 1,626 delegates compared to Clinton's 1,486, according to CNN statistics.

"We are committed to making sure that we do everything in our power to seat a delegation from Florida," Dean said. "We believe we will seat a delegation from Florida."

Another discussions on Michigan delegates were still continuing, he added.

The two states have failed in reaching agreements to redo their primaries. According to the DNC's rule, any alternative vote would have to be completed by June 10 to be counted.

Editor:Zhang Pengfei