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Today, 08 November 2009

› Malema’s life in danger

› Bok player ratings

› Hofmeyr addresses Joost

› Bok captain heading home

› Approaching Normal

Yesterday, 07 November 2009

› Malema’s life in danger

› Leicester sting Bok Bs

› Eskom chair faces the axe

› Nedbank, ANCYL make up

› Hofmeyr addresses Joost

Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry wrestled Wednesday with a fateful decision on whether to admit defeat in the US election, or battle on in slim hopes of snaring the crucial state of Ohio.

George W. Bush's Republican campaign has already declared victory in the Midwestern state, saying the President has a "statistically insurmountable" lead of 130 000 votes.

Democrats, however, insist that at least 250 000 provisional or absentee ballots remain uncounted, making it impossible to declare a definitive result.

Ohio has 20 of the 270 electoral votes needed to be president.

Television networks early Wednesday gave Bush 28 states with 254 electoral votes, Kerry had 18 states and the federal capital, Washington DC, for 242 electoral votes.

Kerry's advisors met to lay out the veteran senator's options through the night on Wednesday, after clamping down a news blackout just before 3am.

No announcements were expected before 10am (1500 GMT), the campaign said.

The veteran senator remained cloistered in his swish Boston home, surrounded by wife Teresa Heinz Kerry and daughters Vanessa and Alexandra.

Controversy erupted after the Kerry campaign rejected calls by two television networks which handed the decisive mid-western state to Bush, a result, which if it stands up, would make it impossible for the veteran senator to take the White House.

"It's been a long night. But we've waited four years for this victory. We can wait one more night," Kerry's vice presidential nominee, John Edwards, told cheering supporters in central Boston, who had been hoping to celebrate a Kerry victory.

"Tonight, John and I are so proud of all of you who are here with us and all of you across the country who have stood with us in this campaign," said Edwards, pumping his fist in the air.

"John Kerry and I made a promise to the American people that in this election every vote would count, and every vote would be counted.

"Tonight we are keeping our word, and we will fight for every vote. You deserve no less. Thank you," he said to a roar of approval from the crowd.

Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill said in a statement that 250 000 provisional ballots, cast but subject to verification of the voter's eligibility, remained to be counted.

"The vote count in Ohio has not been completed," Cahill said in a statement. "We believe when (it has), John Kerry will win Ohio."

Provisional ballots are cast by voters who are found to have some kind of problem with their registration, and must be certified before they can be counted.

Kerry's campaign was cheered by his critical victories in the crucial swing states of Minnesota and Pennsylvania. But he lost the state of Florida, centre of the 2000 vote count imbroglio when the vote dispute had to be resolved by the US Supreme Court, delaying the results 36 days.

Aides said the veteran senator conducted 38 satellite television interviews through Monday afternoon and early evening, hoping to woo any last undecided voters to back his run for the White House.

He earlier wound up his exhausting near two-year campaign with a little superstition, going to the restaurant he has visited on every Election Day, eating a dozen little-necked clams, after casting his vote.

The Massachusetts senator recounted his experience on the campaign trail since securing the Democratic nomination in March.

"When you go state-to-state and people — so many thousands of them — invest their hopes in you. People tell you their life stories.

"They share their troubles. They share their dreams. If you're not moved by that, you're missing something. And I'm deeply moved by it."

The mood in the Kerry camp had started the evening buoyant, after exit polling showed the veteran senator had put up a strong showing countrywide.

Some 10 000 supporters gathered in a downtown square hoping to celebrate a great victory, but dribbled away even before Edwards's speech, many of them in despair.

AFP