By Yousef Al-Tattan
WASHINGTON, Feb 13 (KUNA) -- Eight more candidates will vigorously begin a series of caucuses and primaries around the United States to choose the 45th President on November 9th.
In the democratic party, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) remain close with the latter gaining the upper hand with the amount of delegates gained by winning New Hampshire primary and almost tying with Clinton who snatched a close victory at Iowa caucus early this month.
Delegates who are chosen in caucuses to represent a state, are awarded to candidates who gain most votes in primaries and have to hit a certain number, 2,382 out of 4,763 for democrats and 1,237 out of 2,472 for the republicans, to win the party nomination in their respective conventions next July.
Caucuses can be considered a smaller scale election as they usually represent a town, city or a district and many states hold only caucuses such as the District of Columbia, Alaska and others while bigger and more populated states hold primaries and some even mix the two.
Primaries are more of a conventional state-wide election where registered party members or independents can secretly ballot their votes and candidates are awarded with delegates with rules vary from one state to another on some of the particularities. Democratic candidate Clinton however, has already gained 362 "superdelegates", a term used by democrats to represent members of the congress and governors who carry a heavy weight and want to be able to have a stronger influence on the elections while Sanders has the allegiance of 8 superdelegates.
Superdelegates can switch allegiance while the elected delegates cannot, and in those Sanders has the upper hand with 36 won so far to 32 to Clinton.
The republican party on the other hand has six candidates left when former governor of Virginia Jim Glimore announced his withdrawal late Friday.
Billionaire Donald Trump is leading the delegates count with 17 because of his domination of the votes in the last New Hampshire primary followed by Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Marco Rubio with 11 and 10 respectively.
Republicans will have another chance to debate directly tonight before South Carolina republican primary and Nevada caucus next week with a combined delegates total of 80.
And the democratic party will prepare for their own caucus and primary in the same states but diffirent dates next week with a total of 88 delegates to win over. (end) yt.tg