The U.S. Democratic party chief urged on Monday either Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama to drop the presidential nominee race early June to clear a way for the party to win the November national elections.
Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said in an interview with the ABC's "Good morning America," that the contest for the party's presidential nominee between Clinton and Obama should be over after June 3 as the whole primary season is concluded.
"We want the voters to have their say. That's over on June 3," he said, without saying which candidate should give way to another one.
Since the Democratic primaries and caucuses kicked off on Jan. 3, New York Senator Clinton and Illinois Senator Obama have ran neck-and-neck without a clear forerunner.
As of now, Obama, who is vying to become the country's first African-American president, slightly led the race with 1,724 delegates who will vote for him at the nomination convention set on Aug. 25, compared to Clinton's 1,589.
However, nearly 800 of superdelegates who are taken by the party's lawmakers and officials are considered key players in the race since their votes will decide which candidate can have 2,025 delegates of the total 4,048 needed to secure his or her candidacy.
Although superdelegates are allowed to wait until the nomination convention to draw their votes, it would be too late to unify the party and defeat the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain, Dean warned.
Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and U.S. Senator Barack Obama stand onstage before the start of the debate at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania October 30, 2007. "We really can't have a divided convention. If we do it's going to be very hard to heal the party afterwards," he said. "So we'll know who the nominee is and that'll give us an extra two months to get our party together, heal the wounds of having a very closely divided race and take on (Arizona) Senator McCain."
He believed that either Clinton or Obama would voluntarily decide to give up the race when they realize it is time to do so.
"They don't need any pushing from me. You know when to get in and you know when to get out. That's just part of the deal."
Source:Xinhua
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