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LONDON / LAGOS / SARAJEVO (Reuters) – A day after Americans voted in a hard-contested election, the rest of the world failed to notice on Wednesday, with millions of votes yet to be counted, the race too close to call and a growing risk of days or even weeks of legal uncertainty.
Donald Trump’s pre-emptive declaration of victory in the White House was condemned by some political commentators and American civil rights groups, who warned of the trampling of long-standing democratic norms.
Most world leaders and foreign ministers sat on their hands, trying not to add fuel to the electoral fire.
“Let’s wait and see what the outcome is,” said British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. “Obviously, there is a significant amount of uncertainty. It is much closer than I think many expected.”
But while Raab and others called for caution, the Slovenian prime minister broke ranks and congratulated Trump and the Republican party via Twitter.
“It is quite clear that the American people have chosen @realDonaldTrump and @Mike_Pence for # 4moreyears,” wrote Janez Jansa, one of several Eastern European leaders, including Hungarian Viktor Orban, who are ardent Trump allies. “Congratulations @GOP for the good results in #US.”
The latest vote count showed Democratic challenger Joe Biden with an Electoral College advantage: 224 votes to 213, with 270 needed for victory, but the count will still be completed in at least five major ‘battlefield’ states: Pennsylvania. , Michigan, Wisconsin. North Carolina and Georgia.
In 2000, the choice between George W. Bush and Al Gore depended on Florida. Ultimately, the US Supreme Court ruled in Bush’s favor, in a ruling five weeks after the vote.
In his comments, Trump suggested that the Supreme Court, which he nominated three of the nine justices, would have to decide the winner again.
On Twitter, the hashtags #Trump, #Biden and # USElections2020 were trending from Russia to Pakistan, Malaysia to Kenya and across Europe and Latin America, underscoring how much each region of the world considers the result to be critical.
In Russia, which the US intelligence agencies have accused of trying to interfere in the elections, there was no official reaction.
But pro-Kremlin lawmaker Vyacheslav Nikonov, grandson of Stalin’s foreign minister, advised Russians to stock up on popcorn to watch the show he predicted was about to unfold, saying that American society was fatally divided.
“The election result is the worst outcome for the United States,” wrote Nikonov, who welcomed Trump’s victory in 2016, on Facebook. “Whoever wins the legal battles, half of Americans will not consider them the legitimate president. Let’s stock up on large quantities of popcorn. ”
‘IT AFFECTS US ALL’
In Australia, crowds watched the results roll in while drinking beer at an American bar in Sydney.
“The news is so much better when Trump is around,” said Glen Roberts, wearing a red ‘Make Europe Great Again’ baseball cap. “You never know what he said, he’s so good. I think it will be less interesting if Trump loses.”
Others were quick to underscore the ramifications of the American vote around the world. “I think it affects us all, what happens there really matters for the next four years,” said Luke Heinrich, a Sydney resident.
New York-based Human Rights Watch, one of the world’s leading civil rights groups, warned of the need to reserve judgment on the results until each vote is counted. With a very high number of vote-by-mail ballots this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, full counts are expected to take days in some states.
Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Roth said premature claims of victory were dangerous.
“Autocrats could be perfectly happy to undermine democracy in America by welcoming a premature declaration of victory,” he said.
China, whose relations with the United States have sunk to their worst in decades under Trump, said the election was a domestic affair and it “had no position on it.”
Chinese social media users, however, were quick to poke fun at the failure of the US electoral system to deliver a quick and clear result.
“Whether he wins or loses, his ultimate mission is to destroy the semblance of American democracy,” wrote a user of China’s Weibo platform, similar to Twitter, on Wednesday.
“For Trump to be re-elected and take America downhill,” wrote another.
In Nigeria, a prominent politician, Senator Shehu Sani, said the uncertainty in the United States is reminiscent of Africa.
“Africa used to learn American democracy, America is now learning African democracy,” he tweeted to his 1.6 million followers.
(Reporting by Luke Baker in London, Libby George in Lagos and Daria Sito-Sucic; Additional reporting by Stephanie Ulmer-Nebehay in Geneva, Crispian Balmer in Rome, Justyna Pawlak in Warsaw, Andrew Osborn in Moscow, Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels and Tony Munroe and Gao Liangping in Beijing; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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