US President George W. Bush will declare victory in the hotly-contest presidential election even if his Democratic rival John Kerry refused to concede defeat in the key battleground state of Ohio, his aides said Wednesday morning.

Fox and NBC, two major television networks, projected that Bush had won the 20 electoral votes in the critical state, putting him within one electoral college vote of the 270 needed to win the presidency. Bush then claimed the five electoral votes in Neveda.

The Kerry campaign refused to concede defeat before every vote in Ohio had been counted.
 
"We've waited four years for this victory. We can wait one more night," Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards told a rally in the central Boston, where thousands of Kerry supports awaited the election result, early Wednesday.

Outcome of US presidential election remains uncertain

The outcome of the 2004 US presidential election remained uncertain early Wednesday morning, with the Democrats refusing to admit defeat in Ohio, a decisive state in this year's race for the White House.

With 80 percent of the nation's precincts reporting, Democratic candidate John Kerry won 48 percent of the popular votes, while incumbent Republican George W. Bush claimed 51 percent of the votes.

Bush won 27 states for 249 votes, and Kerry won 16 states and the District of Columbia for 221 votes. A candidate needs 270 votes to win the presidency.

While CBS and Fox News projected Bush the winner in Ohio, which has 20 of the 538 electoral college votes that could decide who would become the winner of the presidential election, other TV networks were cautious in their projections. The Kerry campaign, meanwhile, refused to admit defeat in the state.

"The vote count in Ohio has not been completed. There are more than 250,000 remaining votes to be counted. We believe when they are, John Kerry will win Ohio," Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill said in a statement.

TV networks projected Bush had received 51 percent of the votes, against 49 percent for Kerry, with over 90 percent of the precincts reporting in the state.

In Boston, Massachusetts, Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards vowed the party would "fight for every vote," refusing to concede defeat in the key state of Ohio.

"It's been a long night. But we've waited four years for this victory. We can wait one more night," Edwards told a supporters at a rally in Boston, the hometown of Democratic presidential contender John Kerry.

"John Kerry and I made a promise to the American people that in this election every vote would count, and every vote would be counted," he said, adding that the Democrats would "fight for every vote."

If the 20 electoral votes of Ohio were counted, Bush would have amassed a total of 269 electoral votes, only one vote short for him to be reelected for another four-year term.

Bush won almost all the states that he won four years ago, including Alabama, Alaska, Colorado and Florida, scene of the disputed 2000 election that gave him the presidency, and Kerry carried nearly all the states that voted for Democratic candidate Al Gore in 2000.

In contests for seats in the Congress, TV networks projected that Republicans had expanded their majority in the Senate and retained control of the House of Representatives.

Ohio dispute emerges in US presidential election

The key battleground state of Ohio became the focus of a new dispute in the 2004 presidential election as the campaign of Democratic candidate John Kerry refused to concede defeat before every vote in the state had been counted.

"We've waited four years for this victory. We can wait one more night," Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards told arally in the central Boston, where thousands of Kerry supports awaited the election result, early Wednesday.

Fox and NBC, two major television networks, projected that Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush had won the 20 electoral votes in the critical state. But three other major TV networks said the result was too close to call there as count went on.

A Bush win in Ohio would put him within one electoral college vote of the 270 needed to win the presidency, according to at least three major TV networks.

"John Kerry and I made a promise to the American people that in this election every vote would count, and every vote would be counted," Edwards said. "Tonight we are keeping our word, and we will fight for every vote."

An unknown number of provisional ballots issued to voters when their registration was challenged remained to be counted. The top election officer in Ohio said soon after the dispute emerged that a final count might not come in at least 11 days.

"If the number of votes that make up the difference between the two candidates is fewer than the number of provisional ballots, then I would say everybody should just take a deep breath and relax because we're not going to start counting those ballots until the 11th day after the election," Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell announced.

(Xinhua News Agency November 3, 2004)