Clinton and Trump out to dominate primaries

WASHINGTON, Tuesday

Five US states began voting on Tuesday at a critical juncture in the presidential race, with Hillary Clinton seeking a knockout against Bernie Sanders and Republican Donald Trump confident of extending his lead despite rivals joining forces against him.

A very strong showing in primaries in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island would put former secretary of state Clinton on the cusp of Democratic victory, a monumental step in her quest to become the nation’s first female commander in chief.

“I don’t have the nomination yet,” she said in an MSNBC town hall event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s largest city, on the eve of the vote.

“We’re going to work really hard until the polls close tomorrow.”

Trump too was traveling the primary landscape in an intensifying effort to surpass the threshold of 1,237 delegates needed to lock down the role of 2016 Republican flag bearer.

CRUZ-KASICH DEAL

But his rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich controversially have joined forces to thwart the frontrunner, unveiling a late ploy that allows them to essentially go one on one against Trump in key upcoming states.

According to the surprise deal, Mr Kasich will forego campaigning in Indiana, which votes May 3, and Cruz will return the favour later in New Mexico and Oregon to try to deprive Trump of victories there.

Tuesday’s voting began at 6:00 am (1pmEA time) in Connecticut and one hour later in the other states. In Rhode Island, it was beginning at various times, as early as 7:00 am.

Polls across all five states close at 8 pm (3 am EA time)

Trump is favoured to win all five states Tuesday, while Sanders, whose grass-roots campaign has done well against the Clinton juggernaut, is seen as mounting a last-gasp effort. “We are running as hard as we can to win this thing,” Sanders said Monday.

News of the Cruz-Kasich deal sent Trump over the top, as he assailed the pair for engaging in what he said was a desperate strategy, which he described as collusion.

“You know if you collude in business, or you collude in the stock market, they put you in jail,” Mr Trump boomed in Warwick, Rhode Island.

“But in politics, because it’s a rigged system, because it’s a corrupt enterprise, in politics you’re allowed to collude.”

The partnership “shows how weak they are,” Mr Trump said. “It shows how pathetic they are.” Mr Cruz told potential voters in Indiana Monday that the deal would give them “a straight and direct choice between our campaign and Donald Trump.”