Hillary Clinton to become first female nominee for Democrats

Hillary Clinton has clinched the Democratic nomination for US president after reaching the required number of delegates, an AP tally suggests.

The count puts Mrs. Clinton on 2,383 – the number needed to make her the presumptive nominee.

She will become the first female nominee for a major US political party.

But rival Bernie Sanders said Mrs. Clinton had not won as she was dependent on superdelegates who could not vote until July’s party convention.

Mrs. Clinton reached the threshold with a big win in Puerto Rico and a burst of last-minute support from superdelegates, AP said late on Monday night.

Superdelegates are party insiders who can pledge their support for a candidate ahead of the convention but do not formally vote for them until the convention itself.

Meanwhile, Mr. Sanders has vowed to stay in the race until the convention, and his campaign team said the Vermont senator would attempt to win back superdelegates who have pledged their support to Mrs. Clinton.

His spokesman Michael Briggs said it was too early to call the Democratic contest.

“It is unfortunate that the media, in a rush to judgement, are ignoring the Democratic National Committee’s clear statement that it is wrong to count the votes of superdelegates before they actually vote at the convention this summer,” he said.

“Our job from now until the convention is to convince those superdelegates that Bernie is by far the strongest candidate against Donald Trump.”

Mrs Clinton, a former secretary of state, New York senator and First Lady, leads Mr Sanders by three million votes, 291 pledged delegates and 523 superdelegates, according to AP’s count.

She has won 29 caucuses and primaries to his 21 victories – and an estimated 2.9 million more voters have backed her during the nominating process.

That gives her a significantly greater lead over Mr Sanders than Barack Obama had over her in 2008 – he led by 131 pledged delegates and 105 superdelegates at the point he clinched the nomination.

SOURCE: BBC News