M A I N   N E W S

Florida SC’s no to Gore appeal
By Vasantha Arora

WASHINGTON, Nov 24 — The Florida Supreme Court last night administered a rude shock to US Vice-President Al Gore, rejecting his plea for the resumption of a manual recount in a county that bolstered the winning prospects of his Republican rival George W. Bush in the country’s stalemated presidential election.

A defiant Gore campaign team responded with a declaration that it would challenge in a higher court the results of the Miami-Dade county vote where it had hoped that thousands of ballots that skipped the machine count last week would yield additional votes for Gore and enable him to overtake Bush’s 930-vote lead.

The state apex court, which authorised the hand recounts on Tuesday, declined to order Florida’s most populous Democratic-leaning county to complete a hand count that was abandoned on Wednesday. County officials put a stop to the recounting process, expressing inability to complete it by the November 26 deadline set by the court.

The court, which issued the order on the national ‘‘thanks-giving’’ holiday, did not spell out its rationale. However, it appears the court, comprising six Democratic and one independent judges, upholds the right of the counties to conduct a thorough tabulation of ballots, but also feels they are under no absolute obligation to comply with every political-oriented recount demand.

Now, barring a dramatic, unexpected legal development, which in this unfolding event would not be unprecedented, the New York Times this morning quoted one Bush official as saying that he could not see a path for Gore to reach the White House.

‘‘They can’t get there,’’ the official said. ‘‘If at 5 o’clock Sunday we’re ahead and we get certified, it’s over.’’ Saying Democrats would not want Gore to prolong the standoff, he added, ‘‘The pressure on this guy is going to be great.’’

Despite such confidence by Bush aides and concerns among some Democrats, the daily quotes a top Gore strategist as insisting that he had spoken with the vice-president and that there was no backing down.

Democratic Senator Robert G. Torricelli said it was ‘‘very unlikely’’ that Gore would amass the needed votes. ‘‘The math is getting difficult,’’ he said. — IANS