Washington: Former Governor of Arkansas and Republican contender Michael Huckabee registered the first victory of Super Tuesday primaries winning West Virginia, as more results were expected following closing of polling across US in different time zones.

Huckabee, who won Iowa primary last month, emerged victorious in the West Virginia taking away 18 delegates to the Republican National Convention on a day when 24 states are holding primaries and caucuses to later nominate presidential candidates. Meanwhile, Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama was leading in the southern state of Georgia by a comfortable margin over his nearest and only rival Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to a CNN exit poll.

Political analysts have maintained that the Obama momentum should go beyond the South where African-Americans are expected to vote for him in overwhelming numbers. The exit polls suggested Obama, an African-American Senator from Illinois, received nearly 40 per cent of the white vote in Georgia which is considered good, with Clinton coming at the top with 57 per cent in this category.

In Georgia, Obama came away with 77 per cent of the "younger" voters under the age of 30. Obama is also expected to win by a huge margin in his home state of Illinois and latest polls showed that he was winning by a two-to-one margin over Clinton. Meanwhile, Clinton is expected to take her home state of New York.

Source : PTI