Black groups plan protest meeting over US presidential election

Civil rights groups are to meet in Washington to discuss the alleged denial of blacks' voting rights during the US presidential election.

In an event advertised as a "national emergency summit," leaders of a number of prominent black groups will meet on Thursday at Howard University to "shape a response to the denial of voting rights" in the November 7 election.

Among events mentioned at a related gathering yesterday was a plan by the Rev Al Sharpton for a march on January 20, the day George W Bush is installed as president, to the Supreme Court building in Washington.

"This is not over," Rev Sharpton said. "George Bush was selected by the judges, not elected by the people."

Several groups, as well as dozens of black members of Congress, have alleged that black voters were kept from the polls in Florida and other states on Election Day, and ballots of others were systematically discarded.

Exit polls showed that nine out of 10 blacks voted for Vice President Al Gore rather than Mr Bush, who won a narrow victory by virtue of contested balloting in Florida.

Many Gore supporters believed manual recounts of ballots in disputed Florida precincts would give him the nationwide victory, but the US Supreme Court halted the recounts on December 12. Florida's 25 electoral votes gave Mr Bush the presidency.

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson has alleged "a clear pattern of voter suppression" of blacks in Florida.

He has promised demonstrations in the days leading up to the inauguration and is to appear in a January 20 rally in Tallahassee, Florida. Protests are also scheduled in Chicago and other cities.