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WASHINGTON: The US elections plunged into chaos early Wednesday morning as President Donald Trump prematurely declared victory and sought Supreme Court intervention to halt the counting of votes, even as his Democratic rival Joe Biden expressed confidence in his own possibilities.
In a divisive election projected under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed more than 230,000 lives in the United States, Trump appeared to have avoided a Democratic wave predicted by some polls, but he still needs key states to secure another four-year term. .
Breaking the rules of the world’s most powerful democracy, Trump alleged “gross fraud” while holding a joyous rally inside the ceremonial East Room of the White House.
“We won this election,” Trump told his supporters, some of them wearing masks to protect themselves from Covid-19. “This is a fraud on the American public.”
The Republican magnate said he would go to the Supreme Court because “we want the voting to stop.”
The vote had already ended when Trump took the podium after 2 a.m. (1500 GMT + 8), but Trump appeared to be asking the court to stop counting.
Trump has for months criticized the mail-in ballots, accusing without evidence that they could be fraudulent, as some 100 million Americans voted before Election Day amid the health crisis.
Biden’s campaign soon fought back, calling the president’s offer to stop counting votes “outrageous” and “unprecedented,” and saying his legal teams were ready to fight him in court if necessary.
“The counting will not stop. It will continue until each duly cast vote is counted,” he promised.
Biden had previously warned that the vote counting would take time as he greeted his own sponsors, who honked from cars at a socially distanced rally in his home state of Delaware.
“We believe we are on our way to winning this election,” said the 77-year-old former vice president. “Keep the faith guys, we’re going to win this.”
Warnings about Trump
Biden’s comments clearly made Trump nervous, who immediately tweeted his claims of victory and fraud, prompting Twitter to flag his comments as part of his effort against electoral disinformation.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, who is proving to be the vital prize, said a million mail-in ballots remained to be counted and promised that all counties would work “tirelessly” to complete them.
“Let’s be clear,” the Democrat said of Trump’s comments. “This is a partisan attack on the Pennsylvania elections, our votes, and democracy.”
Trump for the past four years has often been quick to say that he is treated unfairly, but even some of his allies expressed concern over his dramatic intervention.
“Stop. Period. The votes will be counted and you will win or lose. And the United States will accept that. Patience is a virtue,” tweeted Adam Kinzinger, a Republican congressman who won reelection.
At least one state changes
Television networks predicted that Biden would be the first Democrat in 24 years to win Arizona, taking advantage of the southwestern state’s changing demographics and the popularity of astronaut Mark Kelly, who was projected to win a Senate seat.
But no other state changed immediately and Trump won an award early in Florida, where his hard line against Latin American leftists helped him make his way among Cuban Americans.
Democratic hopes of changing Texas, an indispensable Republican stronghold for Trump, despite Biden coming tantalizingly close in early results.
Biden, as expected, comfortably won the biggest prize of all, California, as well as New York and easily kept both Minnesota and New Hampshire, two states where Hillary Clinton in 2016 had only managed victories over Trump.
Attention once again turned to three northern states that elected Trump four years ago, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, with the first ballots still waiting to be counted in the Democratic strongholds of Detroit, Philadelphia and Milwaukee.
Biden said he felt “great” with Michigan and Wisconsin and expressed his confidence in Pennsylvania, where he was born.
The former vice president said it was also competitive in Georgia, a state that until recently didn’t seem to be in play as poll workers in Atlanta’s largest city stopped counting overnight after a pipeline burst.
But Trump pointed to the total votes already counted and insisted he was winning the states, saying he was leading in Pennsylvania “by a tremendous amount of votes.”
Fear of problems
Experts had been warning for weeks that the results of this year’s election would take time, and they expressed fear that Trump would cause chaos or even violence by questioning the process.
While there were no immediate reports of riots, stores were stalled throughout the capital, Washington and, in an unusual move, foreign powers called for nonviolent elections in the United States.
Outside the White House, a loud and peaceful protest in a square renamed by the Black Lives Matter movement turned heated as the night wore on, with skirmishes after one person appeared to drop a gas canister.
And in Portland, the center of clashes this summer between left-wing protesters and police, some 400 people marched downtown under the watchful eye of state police. – AFP
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