US ELECTION 2016: Hillary Clinton Clinches Democratic Nomination, Commends Supporters

Hilary with her husband, Bill Clinton

FORMER US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton has clinched the Democratic nomination for US President after recording a total of 2,384 votes of delegates which is the required number of delegates she needed to make her the presumptive nominee.

By the epoch-making record, she has become the first female nominee for a major US political party. However, her closest rival Bernie Sanders said Mrs Clinton had not won claiming that her scores were dependent on superdelegates who could not vote until July’s party convention.

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.

Mrs Clinton got to the verge with a big win in Puerto Rico and a burst of last-minute support from superdelegates, AP said.

Reacting to the result, Mrs Clinton thanked all her supporters but reminded them that the battle is not yet over, hence the need to add more concerted efforts towards actualizing the vision.

“To all of those who have worked so hard to reach this point, thank you very much. But this primary isn't over yet. Tomorrow million of people in six states will go to the polls and we will work to win each of those votes. Help us to win this and then let's go into the general election together.

“My supporters are passionate. They are committed. They have voted for me in great numbers across our country for many reasons.

“But among those reasons is their belief that having a woman president will make a great statement, a historic statement about what kind of country we are, what we stand for. It’s really emotional”, Mrs Clinton said.

Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, have campaigned tirelessly in the state in recent days after polls showed her formidable lead in the polls shrink in the face of a stiff challenge from Sanders.

However, Clinton reportedly gave a foretaste of the type of campaign she intends to adopt against the real estate mogul last week branding him too dangerous and unstable to be entrusted with nuclear codes and warning of economic crisis if he were to reach the White House.

“Donald Trump’s ideas aren’t just different, they’re dangerously incoherent. They’re not even really ideas, just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds and outright lies,” she said in that speech, widely agreed to be one of her best of the campaign. “He is not just unprepared. He is temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability and immense responsibility.”

Notwithstanding, Mr Sanders has vowed to stay in the race until the convention, and his campaign team said the senator is not relenting in attempt to win back superdelegates.