Washington: After a bitter campaign, Democrats voted today in South Carolina Presidential primary to decide the fate of main contenders Hillary Clinton, who has the odds stacked against her in the African-American dominated state, and Barack Obama, who finds himself in a must-win situation.

As the first southern state cast its ballots, Obama, who is attempting to script history by becoming the first black president of the United States is sitting on a comfortable lead of about eight percentage points over his nearest rival Clinton. However, no one is yet calling this critical primary for the simple reason that there is a large chunk of undecideds.

The former Senator and Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards is at the third place with less than 20 per cent backing. Analysts are predicting that the outcome in South Carolina could be very close with first indications of what is in store starting to trickle in by 6:30 am IST tomorrow.

The South Carolina primary is the first contest in the South for the Democrats and has been dominated by the race issue as more than half the primary voters are expected to be African-American. A victory in the state is especially crucial for Obama who won Iowa but lost to Clinton in New Hampshire and Nevada. A defeat, which will be nothing short of a coup for Clinton, could be fatal setback for Obama's campaign.

Rattled by the successive defeats, Obama had earlier hit out Hillary husband Bill Clinton saying his advocacy of his wife was troubling and had accused the former US President of making unsubstantiated allegations.

Source : PTI