NEW YORK: Democratic and Republican front-runners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump won presidential primaries in their home state of New York on Tuesday night.

In his speech at Trump Tower in Manhattan, Trump thanked his supporters and said his main rival Ted Cruz had all but lost the race for Republican nomination. “Based on what I am seeing on television, Cruz is just about mathematically eliminated,” he said.

“It’s really nice to win the delegates with the votes,” Trump said before echoing the complaints he has been making about what he calls the “rigged delegate selection system”.

For the Democrats, there were 247 delegates for the taking in New York, more than in any of the previous contests.

In her speech, Clinton said: “Today proved once again there’s no place like home. We’ve won in every region in the country — from the north to the south to the east to the west. But this one is personal.”

“Today, together, we did it again and I am deeply, deeply grateful... victory is in sight,” she added.

It is Clinton’s first win since Arizona on March 22. The former secretary of state lost in Hawaii, Idaho, Utah, Washington State, Wisconsin and Wyoming to rival Bernie Sanders.

AFP adds: Clinton and Trump hit the campaign trail on Wednesday after their big wins in New York, with the Democratic frontrunner almost locking up the nomination but the Republican billionaire’s path to victory still remaining unclear.

Clinton — the former secretary of state, first lady and senator from New York — widened her already substantial delegate lead by securing 57.9 per cent of the vote.

Her rival Sanders, who was born and raised in Brooklyn but represents Vermont in the US Senate, received 42.1 per cent — clearly a letdown for a campaign which had predicted a strong showing.

In her victory speech, Clinton shifted her focus to the general election match-up with Republicans, extending an olive branch to supporters of Sanders after a particularly tense New York primary battle.

But Sanders expressed determination to remain competitive.

“There are five primaries next week and we think we are going to do well and we think we have a path to victory,” he insisted to reporters.

For his part, Trump wasted little campaign time, scheduling campaign stops in a trio of states including Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Trump scored a blowout victory on Tuesday with 60.5 per cent of the vote, against 25.1 per cent for Ohio Governor John Kasich, and 14.5 per cent for Trump’s main rival Cruz.

Trump’s provocative candidacy has appalled establishment Republicans, many of whom have joined an effort to block him from winning the nomination.

Even with his New York victory, Trump is far from guaranteed the 1,237 delegates necessary to win the nomination outright before the July convention in Cleveland.

He has now won 847 delegates, according to a CNN tally, with some 670 delegates at stake in the remaining 15 Republican primaries.

Cruz added no New York delegate to his total of 553, while Kasich has 148.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2016