Governor George Bush has been officially proclaimed the winner of the presidential election in Florida by a tiny majority which should mean that he will be the next President of the United States.
However Vice-President Al Gore will today legally contest the Florida result.
Crowds of pro-Bush supporters danced and sang outside the building in Tallahassee where Secretary of State, Ms Katherine Harris, certified Mr Bush the winner in Florida over Mr Gore by a mere 537 votes out of six million cast.
She had been prevented from proclaiming Mr Bush the winner on December 18th by the Florida Supreme Court, which allowed hand recounts in three heavily Democratic counties. The deadline for the recounts expired yesterday at 10 p.m. Irish time.
Mr Gore's running mate, Senator Joseph Lieberman, immediately went before the TV cameras in a Washington hotel near the White House to call the Florida count "incomplete and inaccurate".
He said Ms Harris, who was co-chair of Mr Bush's campaign in Florida, had even refused to accept the results of a hand recount in Palm Beach where Mr Gore was gradually whittling down Mr Bush's initial lead of 930 votes. Palm Beach had been unable to finish its recount by the deadline.
Mr Gore is believed to be preparing to address the nation some time today to explain why he cannot accept the Florida result and will continue to seek victory through the courts. The Gore campaign was expecting a narrow win for Mr Bush in Florida once Miami-Dade county decided not to carry out a hand recount.
Mr Gore had hoped to pick up enough votes in this recount to overtake Mr Bush. If Mr Bush's Florida victory survives legal challenges, he is entitled to the state's 25 Electoral College votes. This would give him a total of 271 electoral votes, or one more than he needs to be elected President by the college on December 18th.
While his Florida certification is a big boost for Mr Bush and his supporters, it is too soon to be sure that Mr Gore will not succeed in his objection to the Florida result. The Leon County circuit court in Florida will hear the objections from Mr Gore's lawyers but Mr Bush will have the right to lodge a rebuttal within 10 days.
The US Supreme Court will on Friday hear oral arguments in the appeal Mr Bush has made to it against a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court which authorised hand recounts after the normal deadline for reporting results.
Now that Mr Bush has been proclaimed the winner in Florida officially, he could drop his appeal to the Supreme Court, but this could be imprudent because he may need a favourable ruling from the court if Mr Gore wins his objections in the lower Florida courts.