The party’s four-day nomination convention started yesterday, July 25, 2016.

The countdown to the November 8, 2016 presidential election in the United States of America (USA) is fast drawing near with the main political parties nominating their candidates.

After the Republican party nominated Donald Trump as its candidate during the party’s nomination convention last week, the rival Democratic party has taken the cue.  The convention that started yesterday, July 25, 2016 in Philadelphia will certain culminated in the nomination of Hillary Clinton as the party’s candidate in the presidential poll. Ahead of the nomination convention, Mrs Clinton picked Tim Kaine as her running mate.

Hillary Clinton’s main challenger in the race for Democratic nomination, Bernie Sanders and his supporters, BBC said, have  expressed disappointment at Mrs Clinton's choice of Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as her running mate, preferring someone further to the left. However, Mr Sanders did say: "I have known Tim Kaine for a number of years... Tim is a very, very smart guy. He is a very nice guy," BBC quoted him as saying.

BBC further reported that Mrs Clinton’s campaign received a boost on Sunday, July 24  with the announcement that Michael Bloomberg, who was elected New York mayor as a Republican, will speak to endorse her this week. Outgoing President Barack Obama had earlier endorsed her candidature.

The only crisis rocking the start of the Democratic party convention is the  row over leaked emails which threaten the unity of the party. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chair Democratic party and head of the National Committee running the convention, is accused  of the leak.

She says she would resign.  More than 19,000 internal DNC emails were  reportedly published by the WikiLeaks website on July 22, 2016 from the accounts of seven leading figures. Some revealed officials looking at ways to undermine Mr Sanders' campaign, including using his faith.