A group of Republican senators will refuse to certify Biden’s victory

Eleven Republican senators announced on Saturday that they will oppose the U.S. Congress to certify the outcome of next week’s presidential election, a last-ditch attempt that could delay confirmation of Joe Biden’s victory, but will not stop it, AFP said. .

So far, only one senator, Josh Hawley, had expressed his intention to challenge the Democrat’s victory on Wednesday, an unusual move that risks exposing the dividing lines within the Republican Party.

“Congress will immediately appoint an electoral commission with full authority to investigate possible” electoral fraud, “the 11 elected members of the upper house said in a statement, echoing Donald Trump’s unfounded two-month elections.

The commission will have to “conduct a 10-day emergency audit of the state election results” in which the two candidates were close to equal votes, said the electorate, led by influential Texas Senator Ted Cruz. If this audit is not carried out, “on January 6 we will vote to reject voters in the disputed states,” they added.

In the United States, the president is elected by indirect universal suffrage, and the electoral college validated Joe Biden’s victory on December 14, with 306 large voters compared to 232 for Donald Trump.

The House of Representatives and the Senate will meet Wednesday to certify the results, a procedure that is usually a simple formality.

But the outgoing president still refuses to admit defeat and called on his supporters to meet in Washington that day.

In the House of Representatives, dominated by a Democratic majority, more than 100 Republican elected officials intend to vote against the certification, according to CNN.

But in the House of Representatives as in the Senate there are not enough votes for his approach to reach its goal.

“We are not naive. We hope that the majority, if not all the Democrats and perhaps some Republicans, vote differently,” the 11 senators acknowledged in their statement.

Donald Trump has regularly asked Republican elected officials to support him in his crusade to challenge the outcome of the November presidential election.

This initiative completely failed in court: a new lawsuit, filed by Republican elect Louie Gohmert, was rejected Friday in Texas due to lack of sufficient evidence.

His complaint was intended to show that Vice President Mike Pence, who will preside over the congressional meeting on January 6, could declare the results invalid in some states.

ALSO READ: The European Union has acknowledged a “global shortage” of vaccine production capacity, saying it is “ready to help” grow them,