Gore to challenge 'inaccurate count'

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, NOV. 27. The Democrats, upset by the Florida Secretary of State, Ms. Katherine Harris, certifying the Texas Governor, Mr. George W. Bush, winner in the State, have vowed to challenge it in court. Terming it an ``incomplete and inaccurate count'', the Vice-President, Mr. Al Gore's running mate, Mr. Joseph Lieberman, said Mr. Gore was in no mood to throw in the towel in the U.S. presidential battle.

``The integrity of our self-government is too important to cast into doubt because votes that have been counted or others that have not yet been counted and clearly should have been, have unjustifiably been cast aside,'' Mr. Lieberman said soon after Ms. Harris' certification. Mr. Gore is expected to deliver a speech on Monday outlining reasons for continuing the legal battle.

Meanwhile, Mr. Bush said he had asked Mr. Cheney to work with the Clinton administration to open a transition office in Washington D.C. But, the General Services Administration, in charge of overseeing the transition, is not ready to hand in either the keys or the money to the Bush team. ``... as long as there is no apparent winner and the outcome is unclear, there's not much we can do,'' a spokeswoman for the GSA said.

The Gore campaign is heading to court in Tallahasse, Florida challenging the certification on different counts, chiefly the incomplete manual counting in the Miami-Dade county. The Bush campaign has said that while it will not file any contests on its own, it will aggressively fight any and all of the Gore campaign's. The Democrats are targeting the Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Nassau counties.

The Republicans, who have been saying that several recounts have been done in Florida and that Mr. Bush and his running mate have come out on top every time, reiterated that view on Sunday night. The former Secretary of State and Mr. Bush's top observer in Florida, Mr. James Baker, said, ``at some point the law must prevail and the lawyers must go home. We have reached that point.''

On Mr. Bush's appeal to the United States Supreme Court, Mr. Baker said the Texas Governor would ``absolutely'' go ahead with his case challenging the decision of the Florida Supreme Court in extending the certification deadline and the manual recount in four counties. ``We have no assurance that the other side will stop,'' he said. The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on Friday.

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Section  : International
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