Central Park Five member on track to win New York City Council seat

Activist and member of the “Central Park Five" Yusef Salaam has declared victory in the Democratic primary of his New York City Council race, according to reports.

Salaam is significantly ahead of his opponents in the Democratic primary for the seat representing the 9th Council District, part of Harlem, with 50.14 percent of the vote.

As The Hill points out, New York’s ranked choice voting system "requires a candidate to win a majority of the votes in the first round to win outright. The system would kick in if no candidate wins a majority, and the votes for the lowest-performing candidate would be redistributed among the remaining candidates based on their voters’ second preference."

If Salaam wins the Democratic nomination, he will most likely win the general election in the heavily Democratic district.

Twenty years ago, Salaam and four other men were exonerated through DNA evidence after they were arrested in 1989 on charges of beating and raping a white female jogger.

The group served between five and 12 years in prison before prosecutors reviewed the case. Ultimately, DNA evidence and a confession from a serial rapist cleared the five of them, and their convictions were vacated in 2002.

In March, Salaam issued a brief statement following the criminal indictment of former U.S. President Donald Trump—who called for bringing back the state's death penalty to execute the defendants and never apologized after they were cleared. Salaam tweeted: "For those asking about my statement on the indictment of Donald Trump—who never said sorry for calling for my execution—here it is: Karma."