US presidential race too close to call, Trump claims 'fraud' in the electoral process
Washington: The race for the White House between Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden was poised for a photo-finish, even as the incumbent Republican president on Wednesday claimed "fraud" in the counting of votes and said he would approach the Supreme Court to stop it.
With millions of votes still being counted and several swing states yet to declare results, both Trump and Biden say they are on course for victory in the 2020 presidential election, one of the most divisive and bitter in American history.
Tuesday's election saw tight races in many key battleground states with Biden winning 224 electoral college votes and Trump closely behind with 213. The winner of the 2020 presidential election should have at least 270 electoral college votes out of the 538-member electoral college.
Fox News, considered to be the favorite news network of the president, gave him only 213 electoral college votes while crediting 238 votes to Biden. It also gave 50 percent of the popular vote to the Democratic challenger and 48.4 percent to Trump.
No major US media has projected a clear winner in the election.
President Trump called the election "a fraud on the American public" and said, "Frankly, we did win this election."
He also said he planned to take the battle to the Supreme Court to stop the counting of votes.
"All of a sudden everything just stopped. This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election," Trump said, without citing any evidence of fraud in the electoral process.
"We will win this, and as far as I'm concerned, we already have won it," Trump, 74, said in remarks to supporters in the White House East Room at 2 am.
"Our goal now is to ensure integrity, for the good of this nation. This is a very big moment. This is a major fraud in our nation. We want the law to be used in a proper manner. So we'll be going to the US Supreme Court.
"We want all voting to stop. We don't want them to find any ballots at four o'clock in the morning and add them to the list," Trump said, amidst applause from his supporters.
Reacting sharply, Biden's campaign manager called Trump's statement as "outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect."
"If the president makes good on his threat to go to court to try to prevent the proper tabulation of votes, we have legal teams standing by ready to deploy to resist that effort. And they will prevail," Jen O'Malley Dillon said.
"The president's statement tonight about trying to shut down the counting of duly cast ballots was outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect. It was outrageous because it is a naked effort to take away the democratic rights of American citizens," Dillon said in a statement.
Trump was currently leading in other major battleground states like Pennsylvania and Michigan where projections are yet to be made by the US media outlets.
A national race in which a record number of Americans voted amidst the COVID-19 pandemic is boiling down to just a handful of states: Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
Polls before Election Day suggested possible outcomes ranging from a comfortable win for Biden to a narrow victory for Trump where he loses the national popular vote but once again carries enough battleground states to win in the electoral college.
But Trump's decision to move the Supreme Court has brought uncertainty. The mainstream American media has criticized the president.
"No elected leader has the right to unilaterally order votes to stop being counted, and Mr. Trump's middle-of-the-night proclamation amounted to a reckless attempt to hijack the electoral process as results in key battleground states were still not final, something without precedent in American politics," The New York Times commented, criticizing the president's move.
Trump's remarks added another bizarre twist to one of the most extraordinary election cycles in the nation's history, it said.
With millions of votes still being counted, the outcome of the race between Trump and Biden remained in flux, with the possibility that the winner would not be known for days, The Washington Post reported.
A short time before Trump spoke, Biden, 77, addressed supporters in his home state of Delaware.
Biden projected optimism but asked voters for patience. He pointed to Pennsylvania and Michigan, among other battlegrounds, as slow-counting states that he expected to win.
"As I've said all along, it's not my place or Donald Trump's place to declare who's won this election, Biden said. "That's the decision of the American people. But I'm optimistic about this outcome."
"It ain't over till every vote is counted," Biden added.
Trump pointed out that he had impressive victories in Florida, Ohio, and Texas. He said that he has already won in states like Georgia and North Carolina where his rivals cannot catch up in the rest of the counting of votes.
Arizona, which has been projected to be won by Biden, continues to be in play, he said, adding that he is winning big in Pennsylvania.
Alleging that his challenger (Biden) knew that they couldn't win, Trump said: So they said, let's go to court. I have been saying this from the day I heard they were going to send out tens of millions of ballots. I said exactly because either they were going to win, or if they didn't win. They'll take us to court."
According to reports, there are more than 1.4 million vote-by-mail ballots left to count in Pennsylvania, and it could take days to tabulate them all. The big cities in Michigan (Detroit) and Wisconsin (Milwaukee) are also yet to fully report, and they will heavily tilt toward the Democrats.
Meanwhile, Georgia is a wildcard. What seemed heading towards a comfortable Trump win earlier on Tuesday has ended up in a dead heat.
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West Asia conflict: More than 700 travellers from MP stranded in UAE
Indore (PTI): More than 700 people from Madhya Pradesh, including two former MLAs, are stranded in the United Arab Emirates due to flight cancellations amid the ongoing conflict in West Asia, an office-bearer of a travel agents' outfit said on Sunday.
Several people from the state had travelled to the UAE for tourism and business purposes, and the crisis in the region had left them stranded, Amol Kataria, chairman of the Travel Agents Federation of India's MP unit, told PTI.
Many travellers from the state had cancelled their upcoming trips to Dubai and Sharjah, he added.
ALSO READ: Delhi airport: 100 int'l flights cancelled amid Middle East conflict
Kataria said that more than 700 people were stuck in the UAE, and among them, former MLA and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sanjay Shukla is in Dubai.
"Due to the current international situation, our return to India today could not take place as Dubai airport was temporarily closed. We are receiving full cooperation from the Dubai administration and the Government of India. We will return to Indore as soon as the situation normalises," Shukla's post on social media stated.
Talking to PTI, the former Indore legislator's son, Sagar, said that his father had gone to Dubai three days ago with former Depalpur MLA Vishal Patel and some industrialist friends, and was scheduled to return to Indore on Sunday.
He said he had spoken to his father over the phone and heard explosions during the conversation, following which his father and his friends moved to a safe location.
He expressed hope that his father and his friends would return home soon with the efforts of the Indian government.
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Congress president Jitu Patwari, in a social media post, claimed that over 100 citizens from the state were stranded at Dubai and Sharjah airports.
Women, children and families had been facing inconvenience for several hours, and anxiety had increased after flight cancellations, he said.
Patwari urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene immediately and ensure the safety of all Indians stranded in the UAE, while making arrangements for their early return home.
The United States and Israel launched a major attack on Iran on Saturday, with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei killed early on Sunday.
Hundreds of flights have been disrupted across West Asia and in other countries, including India, due to airspace restrictions following the joint attack and retaliatory action by Iran.
