Aides urge Al Gore: quit now


The verdict of the US Supreme Court today seemed almost certain to hand the bitterly disputed presidency to George W Bush. Leading Democrats are urging rival candidate Al Gore to abandon the court fight and concede defeat. He has promised to speak later today. The key Supreme Court judgment, by a hairbreadth 5-4 majority, was announced at 3.30am UK time.

• First, the judges voted 7-2 to reverse a Florida Supreme Court ruling ordering the recounting of contested ballots in the state.
• They argued that the recount would violate the US constitution because standards of counting could not be guaranteed from county to county or even within each county.
• Two liberal judges then said there WAS enough time to conduct the recounts in a way that would be constitutionally acceptable.
• This meant a final verdict, in Mr Bush's favour, of 5-4 that a recount would be unconstitutional.
• It effectively sealed the Republican's wafer-thin margin of victory in Florida, giving him enough electoral college votes to become President.

There has been no official reaction from the Gore campaign, who are still scrutinising the apparently fatal Supreme Court judgment, in an attempt to find any possible legal loophole.

However, Ed Rendell, chairman of the Democratic national committee, urged Mr Gore to 'act now and concede' and Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe, a core member of Mr Gore's legal team, said the decision signalled a conclusive defeat for the Democrats and the 'gracious thing' would be for Mr Gore to concede.

Other senior Democrats joined in, including New Jersey senator Robert Torricelli, who said in a TV interview: 'Clearly the election has come to an end.'

But a senior Gore aide insisted: 'It is not over yet. They don't know what they are talking about. They obviously haven't read the ruling. They were speaking for themselves, not us.'

Veteran civil rights activist Jesse Jackson said Mr Gore should wait until 'the sliver of an opening the court left is pursued,' and pledged to get the Florida votes counted somehow despite the court's ruling.

Mr Bush's spokesman James Baker said his team was 'very pleased and gratified' by the Supreme Court's ruling but held back from claiming outright victory or calling on Mr Gore to concede, even though it is now almost certain that Mr Bush, the Governor of Texas, will become America's 43rd President.

Without a recount in Florida, the state's 25 votes in the electoral college that chooses the President will go to Mr Bush, taking him past the magic figure of 270 that the winning candidate will need when the electoral college meets next Monday.

The Florida Legislature has already approved electors loyal to Mr Bush, who now faces the mammoth task of forming an effective government despite winning Florida by fewer than 300 votes and failing to carry the national popular vote.

Aides urge Al Gore: quit now

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