Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has described as “rigged and disgusting” the party’s delegate selection rules after his rival Ted Cruz swept all of Colorado’s 34 delegates over the weekend.
“Honestly, I do wonder. I’m millions of votes ahead, which they don’t even mention, they don’t even talk about.
They talk about delegates. And I’m hundreds of delegates ahead but the system is rigged, folks. It’s a rigged, disgusting dirty system,” Mr. Trump (69), told his supporters at a rally in Albany in New York.
“It’s a dirty system and only a nonpolitician would say it,” Mr. Trump said expressing his anger and deep frustration over the current system.
Colorado Republicans cancelled their presidential primary since it would not affect their unbound delegates. The 37 delegates were instead selected at the state convention.
However, the party leadership rejected Mr. Trump’s allegations.
“It’s the same process they used four years ago. I mean, it’s no different. Some states use a primary system to bind delegates. Some states use a caucus system to bind delegates.
And some states use a convention system to bind delegates,” Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, told Fox News in an interview.
Mr. Priebus said the rules were developed well in advance and a transparent system has been followed for the primary system.
While Mr. Trump has 743 delegates to Mr. Cruz’s 545, political pundits believe that if the real estate tycoons fails to reach the 1,237 pledged delegates, the Texas Senator has the organisational advantage to win the party’s nomination at the Cleveland Convention in July.
PTI