U.S. Democratic National Committee (DNC)'s rules and bylaws committee on Saturday reinstated all of Florida and Michigan's delegates to its party's presidential nomination convention in August.
However, each delegate from the two states will only have half a vote at the convention because the two states held its primary earlier than the DNC allowed, according to DNC officials.
The move leaves front-runner Sen. Barack Obama's lead over rival Sen. Hillary Clinton intact and was seen as a blow to the latter.
For Obama, the ruling removed one of the few remaining hurdles on his way to clinch the party's presidential nomination.
"This results in Sen. Clinton obtaining a substantial number of additional pledged delegates, but I also understand that many members of the Florida and Michigan delegations feel satisfied that the decision was fair," Obama said after a campaign event in Aberdeen, South Dakota.
"Our main goal is to get this resolved so we can immediately turn the focus of the entire party on winning Florida and Michigan and delivering on the needs of the people in Florida and Michigan -- states that are enormously important, states where a lot of people are struggling, "he said.
The Florida decision, which follows the pro-Clinton results of that state's primary, was greeted by virtually all sides as an acceptable compromise on a thorny issue.
But Clinton backers vowed to fight the Michigan decision, which gave the New York senator a 10-delegate edge over Obama in a state where his name didn't appear on the primary ballot.
"Today's results are a victory for the people of Florida, who will have a voice in selecting our party's nominee and will see its delegates seated at our party's convention," said a joint-statement from Clinton advisers Harold Ickes and Tina Flournoy. "
"But we strongly object to the committee's decision to undercut its own rules in seating Michigan's delegates without reflecting the votes of the people of Michigan," it said.
The Democratic National Committee had penalized both states for holding their primaries earlier by excluding them from representation when the party nominates a candidate at the August convention.
Clinton and Obama had different plans to solve the issue because of different interests.
Neither of them campaigned in Florida ahead of its vote, and Clinton's was the only major candidate's name that appeared on Michigan's ballot.
She received 55 percent of the vote in that state, with 44 percent of voters voting "uncommitted."
So Clinton's complain about the DNC decision on Michigan is that Obama still gets delegates from the state even his name was not on the ballot.
Her supporters threatened to fight the decision all the way to the party convention in August.
The rules and bylaws committee's ruling gave Clinton 105 pledged delegates from Florida and 69 from Michigan, with a total of 87 votes.
Obama received 67 pledged delegates from Florida and 59 from Michigan, casting a total of 63 votes.
That tally leaves Obama ahead by the equivalent of 178 votes among national convention delegates.
Without counting votes from Florida and Michigan, the Illinois senator is ahead by 202 votes.
Based on Saturday's ruling, the new "magic number" to be the Democratic party's presidential nominee appears to be 2,118.
CNN estimates that as of this moment, Barack Obama has 2,050 delegates and Hillary Rodham Clinton has 1,877.
There are 55 delegates at stake Sunday in Puerto Rico's primary, 16 at stake on Tuesday in Montana and 15 at stake on Tuesday in South Dakota.
Those are the last primaries of the campaign season. None of those contests are "winner take all," so both candidates will win at least some delegates.
The key votes will be from the 200 or so super delegates (elected officials, party leaders and activists) who haven't yet committed to either candidate.
Obama, by Real Clear Politics' calculation, now has a 324-283 super delegate lead over Clinton.
With only three primaries left and the final one on June 3, Obama is confident that he will get enough votes next week to become the first black Democratic presidential nominee.
Source: Xinhua
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