Washington, Dec 8: US President-elect Joe Biden has selected retired Army general Lloyd Austin to be the first African-American secretary of defense, according to media reports.

If confirmed by the Senate, the 67-year-old career military officer would be the first African-American to lead the Department of Defence.

The office of the President-elect did not confirm the news, but said Biden will announce additional members of his Cabinet before Christmas, including his nominee for Secretary of Defence and members of his economic and domestic cabinet before the end of this week.

Retired Gen. Lloyd Austin, once viewed as a long-shot candidate to be President-elect Joe Biden's defence secretary, has been chosen to lead the Pentagon, Politico reported on Monday.

Biden has selected retired Austin, the former commander of US Central Command, to be his secretary of defence, the CNN also reported, quoting a source familiar with the decision.

Biden's decision to pick Austin comes amidst increasing pressure from the African Americans to name one of them to the top four positions -- Secretary of State, Treasury Secretary, Defence Secretary and Attorney General, according to political observers.

Austin was the Commander of the US Central Command from 2013 to 2016. In this position, he closely interacted with the top Pakistani military leadership.

If nominated by Biden, he would be the second Defence Secretary after James Mattis in four years to require Congressional waiver to head the position. Mattis, a retired US Marine Corps general, served as the defence secretary from January 2017 through January 2019.

As per rules, a former member of the military should be out of uniform at least seven years before serving as defence secretary. The laws were meant to preserve the civilian nature of the Department of Defence.

Austin in 2012 also served as the first African-American vice chief of staff of the Army. A year later, he assumed charge of the US Central Command.

Austin retired from the Army in 2016.

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New Delhi (PTI): A day after the Trinamool Congress wrote to the Chief Election Commissioner demanding that the number of voters in the first two phases be made public, TMC leader Derek O'Brien on Tuesday questioned the neutrality of the poll panel.

"Does EC now stand for 'extremely compromised! In cricket, there are three kinds of umpires- an umpire, a neutral umpire and a biased umpire. By the actions of EC, more and more people are being convinced that EC fits into the third category," O'Brien, Trinamool Congress' Leader in Rajya Sabha, stated in an X post.

The Trinamool Congress had on Monday urged Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar to "urgently furnish" the constituency-wise voter turnout in absolute numbers for the first two phases of Lok Sabha polls and also sought an explanation over the "delay" in releasing the figures.

Facing flak from the opposition parties over the issue, the Election Commission had on Monday said that "booth-wise data of actual number of votes polled is available with the candidates, which is a statutory requirement". It had also announced a new feature to its mobile application to show aggregated phase-wise turnout for the ongoing Lok Sabha polls.

"Commission has added a new feature in Voter Turnout App to show aggregated phase-wise turnout also in addition to State/PC /AC wise figures. This is for better facilitation of media and other stakeholders who may need this customised information," it said.

In its letter addressed to the CEC on Monday, the Trinamool Congress said the poll panel released the voter turnout percentage for the first two phases "belatedly" on April 30, but the report had no information about the total figure of eligible electors and the number of actual votes cast.

They demanded that the EC publish the total number of registered electors in each seat, the total number of voters physically turned up as per the 'Register for Voters', and the number of voters as per the EVM, for all constituencies which had gone to polls in phases one and two.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also wrote to the leaders of various parties of the INDIA opposition bloc on Tuesday over the alleged discrepancies in the voting data released by the EC. In his letter, Kharge urged the INDIA bloc leaders to "collectively, unitedly and unequivocally" raise their voice on the issue. Sources in the Trinamool Congress said they welcomed the letter.

The EC officially shared the turnout figure for the first two phases of Lok Sabha polls on April 30. According to EC figures, a voter turnout of 66.14 per cent was recorded in phase one and 66.71 per cent in phase two of the ongoing Lok Sabha polls. The opposition parties are also demanding that the absolute number of voters be made public.

Voting is being held in 93 constituencies spread over 11 states and Union territories on Tuesday in the third phase of the parliamentary polls.