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U.S. Virgin Islands hunger striker selected as alternate delegate to Republican National Convention
by Steve S. Bullock, Associated Press Writer
Posted: Aug 22, 2004 21:11 UTC
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CHRISTIANSTED (AP) - An activist who staged a two-week hunger strike in the U.S. Virgin Islands to demand the right to vote in U.S. presidential elections has been selected as an alternate delegate to the Republic National Convention, officials said Sunday.
Edward Browne, 29, of St. Croix, replaced an alternate who bowed out for personal reasons, said Jim Oliver, Republican Party chairman in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
"Mr. Browne is very refreshing, and feels that he can make a difference," Oliver said.
Browne, who voted in past presidential elections when he was studying and working in Colorado, said he doesn't feel he should be disenfranchised for returning to this U.S. territory.
U.S. citizens who maintain an address on the mainland while living in U.S. territories must choose between voting in local elections or the U.S. presidential elections by absentee ballot. Those without mainland addresses cannot vote for president.
Browne, a registered Republican, began a 12-day water and vegetable juice diet on Aug. 1 and lost 12 pounds (5.4 kilograms). He ended the hunger strike after responses from the White House and the John Kerry campaign.
A White House spokeswoman and a spokesman for Kerry's campaign responded to requests for comment from The Associated Press about Browne's hunger strike, but they did not take a position on the issue. Browne was not contacted by the officials.
Lilliana Belardo de O'Neal, a former U.S. Virgin Islands senator who is leading the Republican delegation, is scheduled to give a three-minute speech at the convention, which runs from Aug. 30 through Sept. 2, in New York City.
O'Neal, whose delegation will cast nine votes, will make a reference to Browne's hunger strike during her address and call for U.S. territories to have voting rights in U.S. presidential elections, Oliver said.
Echoing Browne's plea at the recent Democratic National Convention, Donna M. Christensen _ the U.S. Virgin Islands' nonvoting delegate to U.S. Congress _ introduced a bill last month to the House that would amend the Constitution, giving U.S. citizens living in territories the same voting rights as those on the U.S. mainland.
There are 110,000 residents of the U.S. Virgin Islands, and more than 4 million living in the other U.S. possessions of Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and American Samoa. The territories don't pay federal income taxes although their residents are U.S. citizens.
(sb-fg)
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