US: Ralph Nader, the radical US activist whose 2000 presidential bid was thought by many Democrats to have cost them the election and putGeorge Bush in the White House, declared yesterday that he would stand again this year.
The announcement was denounced by Democratic officials, who called on opponents of the Bush administration to rally around their presidential nominee: depending on the remaining primary elections, John Kerry or John Edwards.
But the Democrats also played down the significance of Mr Nader's threat, predicting that he would win far fewer than the nearly 2.9 million votes (2.7 per cent of the total) he took in the 2000 elections, which ended in a dead-heat between Mr Bush and Al Gore. The tie was broken only by the supreme court ruling in Mr Bush's favour.
The consumer rights and environmental activist, who turns 70 this week, stood as a Green Party candidate in 2000 but he has parted ways with its leadership, because it wanted to strike an agreement with the Democrats.
Announcing his candidacy on an NBC political talkshow, Mr Nader rejected the views of the "liberal intelligentsia" and accused his critics on the left of trying to suppress free political choice.
"It is an offence to deny millions of people who might want to vote for our candidacy a chance to vote," he said on Meet the Press. "Seeds have to be given a chance to sprout in nature. It's called springtime."
Mr Nader repeated the main plank of his 2000 platform, that the Democrats were as much in thrall to corporate sponsorship as the Republicans. "Washington is now corporate-occupied territory", and argued that a "for sale" sign had been put up on government agencies, allowing corporations to place former executives in powerful positions in return for campaign contributions.
"The two parties are ferociously competing to see who is going to go to the White House and take orders from their corporate paymasters." - Guardian