(AFP) – May 2, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The spotlight shines on an oft forgotten part of US territory this weekend when the tiny, remote Pacific island of Guam gets its chance to help make history in the US presidential campaign.

Guam, which has been a US territory since 1898, rarely steps into the limelight in US politics, lying on the other side of the international dateline and more than a 20-hour plane ride from Washington.

But all eyes will be on Saturday's Democratic caucuses, even though there are only four party delegates at stake, with every vote crucial in the deadlocked battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to be the party's presidential candidate.

Saturday's vote is the only role Guam Democrats will have in the election contest; the island's residents, while US citizens, cannot vote in general presidential elections.

So its sudden high profile on the political scene has prompted some jokes from commentators given that the island is more known as a US military base and scene of some of the bloodiest battles against the Japanese in World War II.

"At least Guam is on the national scene and at least people now have a different perspective of Guam," the island's Democratic Party chairman Tony Charfauros retorted on CNN Friday.

"We're remotely out here in the Pacific and I guess we're always the forgotten ones in the American family," he acknowledged.

Despite months on the campaign trail, Clinton and Obama haven't made the long trek to the island, which revels in its slogan "Where America's Day Begins," to bask in its balmy waters and stroll along on its sandy beaches.

But in interviews to local radio stations they have promised to address issues close to residents' hearts such as earning them more power in the corridors of Congress.

About 48,000 people are registered voters, and Guam activists have been demanding greater political self-determination and a vote on either independence or statehood.

One major campaign concern on the western Pacific territory are plans by Washington to add thousands of troops over the next decade, as the United States faces base closures in Japan.

The US military owns nearly one-third of the island, which is just 30 miles (48 kilometers) long. Some 4,000 troops are already based there and the US military plans to move around another 8,000 marines from Okinawa by 2012.

Home to one of the largest US military naval bases in the region, Guam is banking on the US military buildup to bail it out of its economic woes.

Obama has pledged that local contractors would get the lion's share of the upcoming construction work to build homes and offices for the arriving forces.

And his campaign has insisted that the Illinois senator, who was born in Hawaii, instinctively understands the problems facing the tiny territory, so far removed from the mainland.

Local Democrats say that some 4,000 people may take part in Saturday's caucuses, up from 1,500 in 2004.

Polls open at 10:00 am (2000 GMT Friday) and close at 20:00 pm (0600 GMT Saturday). The results are expected around 1600 GMT Saturday.

Apart from the island's four delegates to the party's nominating convention in August in Denver, it also has five all-important superdelegates who can vote for whoever they like.

The island's only representative to the US Congress, Madeleine Bordallo, one of the five superdelegates, has yet to take sides, but according to the local Pacific Daily News, Clinton and Obama should get at least one each.

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »