Bush, Gore continue 'vigil'

WASHINGTON, DEC. 12. The fate of the U.S. presidential election today was awaiting a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that could determine whether the Texas Governor, Mr. George W. Bush, or the Vice-President, Mr. Al Gore, would move into the White House.

After a momentous hearing, the nine judges gave no hint as to when they would issue their ruling, but today's statutory deadline for certifying slates of electors who will choose the next President suggested a decision could be expected sooner rather than later. The court heard over 90 minutes of oral arguments yesterday from lawyers for Mr. Bush and Mr. Gore before retiring to deliberate.

The issue is whether or not to allow manual recounts of Florida's disputed presidential ballots. Those recounts were ordered by the Florida Supreme Court on Friday but the next day the U.S. Supreme Court ordered them suspended pending yesterday's hearing on the issue.

Neither candidate can prevail without Florida's decisive 25 votes in the electoral college, which will pick the 43rd President on December 18.

Mr. Bush enjoys a scant 537-vote edge out of more than six million ballots cast in the November 7 election to succeed Mr. Bill Clinton. Mr. Gore says hand recounts would show he won Florida. One major hurdle is the Republican-dominated Florida legislature, which is holding a special session aimed at appointing a pro-Bush slate of electors, which could make hand tallies moot.

The U.S. Supreme Court split 5-4 along ideological lines on Saturday as it halted hand recounts ordered a day earlier by the Florida Supreme Court, which said some 40,000 ballots on which machines had failed to discern a vote for President must be reconsidered.

After the session, Mr. Gore's lawyer, Mr. David Boies, refused to speculate about the outcome, telling NBC television that ``I've been proved wrong'' every time he made a prediction.

Experts said the court could again split 5-4 - mirroring the national chasm over the election - overruling the Florida Supreme Court and severing Mr. Gore's final lifeline to the white house.

But experts said it was possible for the judges to issue something less than a straight up-or-down ruling.

- AFP

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