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Obama beats Clinton by 7 votes
04/05/2008 14:08 - (SA)
Hagatna - Barack Obama defeated Hillary Clinton in the Guam caucuses of the Democratic White House battle by a mere seven votes, local party officials said on Sunday.
After a marathon all-night counting session, Obama won 14 of the 21 districts in the remote US territory and finished with 2 264 votes to 2 257 for Clinton.
Voter turnout was 25% higher than the 4 000 party officials expected on Saturday as the tiny Pacific island grasped its one opportunity to influence the presidential outcome.
The island's residents, while US citizens, cannot vote in November's presidential election.
Clinton thanked her supporters and pledged to continue to champion local issues on Guam.
"After seven years of the Bush administration, Guamanians need someone who will stand up and fight for them," Clinton said in a statement.
"As our campaign moves forward after this day, I will continue to champion the issues facing the people of Guam and when I'm president I will ensure that hard-working families of Guam have the resources and the opportunity to succeed," she said.
Guam party officials said many people had registered as Democrats at the caucus sites around the island, prompting the tag "Democrats for a day."
"There are many new Democrats today," the chairperson of the Democratic nominating committee Herbie Perez said.
"I am so surprised. I never thought it would be like this."
The outcome rested on Dededo, the island's most populated community and the final village to be counted, and where Clinton had strong support from the predominantly Filipo-American community.
She trailed Obama by 203 votes before counting began in Dededo where officials said several spoiled ballots were rejected.
It was not immediately clear whether the four pledged delegates from Guam's caucuses would be split evenly between Obama and Clinton.
Guam like, most Democratic Party nominating contests does not use a winner take all formula, but a complicated formula of proportionally doling out the spoils, based on a variety of factors.
Each delegate vote is crucial to the Democratic White House battle.
A tally by independent website RealClearPolitics.com had Obama up by 136 total delegates, 1 739 to 1 603.
Neither Obama nor Clinton visited Guam ahead of the vote but both gave interviews to local media and vowed to address local issues, such as the relocation of 8 000 Marines from Okinawa in Japan and war reparation claims.
Guam, a US territory since 1898, rarely steps into the limelight of US politics as it lies on the other side of the international dateline. The island has about 48 000 registered voters.
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