国际英语新闻:Protest erupted over election of new California Democratic Party leader

LOS ANGELES, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Dozens protesters gathered Sunday morning at the state convention center in Sacramento, the capital of California, complaining results of the Democratic Party's election for a new leader in the state.

According to the state party, Los Angeles County Democratic Party Chairman Eric Bauman won a razor-thin victory Saturday night to be elected as the party's next chairman, beating rival Kimberly Ellis by just more than 60 votes out of 3,300 eligible delegates.

But Ellis refused to concede, and a spokesman for her campaign said on Sunday that they were consulting with legal counsel to determine their options.

Ellis supporters claimed that delegate ballots may had been counted twice and demanded a recount, however, the Democratic Party denied all of the allegations.

According to the local newspaper Sacramento Bee, supporters of Bauman and Ellis framed the race as a contest between the establishment wing and the Sanders wing of the Democratic Party.

Bauman, supported by the vast majority of the Democratic members of the state legislature, was a favourite of the party establishment, while Ellis drew the backing of liberals who supported Bernie Sanders in last year's presidential primary.

Mani Kang, 41, a Democratic delegate from Orange county joining the protest Sunday, was quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying that the result Saturday night was too similar to the presidential race.

The protesters blamed the leadership of the Democratic Party, including former party chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, of undercutting the Sanders campaign in favor of Hillary Clinton.