By IANS
New Delhi : When around 40 members of the American expatriate community gathered at a seafood restaurant in the Indian capital Tuesday evening, it was not to ponder over the choicest crab or prawn, but to decide which Democratic candidate should run for president.
Democrats settled in Delhi, bundled in their woollens against the chilly wind, trooped in at the Ploof restaurant in Lodhi Colony to decide between the frontrunners – Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama – hours before the polls opened in US for Super Tuesday in 23 states.
This is the first time ever that US citizens could take part in a primary election outside their country.
There are about seven million Americans living outside US, who have for the first time been recognized as a “state” for Democrat primaries. Incidentally, the American expatriate population is bigger than several US states like Rhode Island and Wyoming.
The voting started at 4 p.m., when the largest crowd came in after office-hours. The booth will also be open on Feb 6, 9 and 12.
The Republican Party does not have an overseas polling booth for its primaries.
A quick straw poll found that there was certainly a tilt towards Obama, though it still appears to be a close call. The results of the Democrat primaries in Delhi will only be known Feb 23, as they will wait for all absentee ballots from overseas Americans to reach the counting centers, by mail.
Most of the voters felt that their long stay outside their country gave them a better appreciation of the impact of American foreign policy, which dictated their choice.
“We understand more than people who are living inside the country on how foreign policy affects people in the rest of the world,” said 42-year-old James Baer, a writer living in Delhi and a Democrats Abroad India volunteer.
Since it is “open ballot”, all voters have to sign in their particulars, including address, e-mail and telephone numbers. “We use the same ballot paper in all countries for voting (for primaries) by Democrats Abroad,” he said.
The booth was on the covered balcony, where they ticked their choice on the ballot, and cast it into a large plastic box turned into a temporary ballot box. Their reward – a sticker saying in “I voted in Global presidential primary” and a cookie shaped like a donkey with red and white icing. The animal is the party’s mascot and the colours are of the party.
Judy Schroeder, who came in with her young daughter, refused to share her vote, but indicated, “we need a change in Washington”.
A 75-year-old Indian-American grandmother came in to vote along with her daughter and grandson. “I am for change,” she said, while her daughter added more explicitly, “We need a woman (in the white house)”.
A sixty-one-year-old US government consultant walked into the restaurant, undecided, as his favourite candidate John Edwards was no longer in the race.
“I believe that his candidature had helped the other candidates to formulate their own policies,” he said, demurring to reveal his name. But, he finally cast his vote for Obama “for the same reason that Kennedy was elected”.