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In the United States’ election 2020, Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden is leading Republican nominee President Donald Trump marginally in terms of electoral votes. But nothing can be said with certainty until the last vote is counted.
In-person voting has concluded. Results are pouring in from across the United States. Democratic Party candidate and former vice president, Joe- Biden is taking on Republican Party’s nominee and incumbent President Donald Trump.
Biden is leading Trump marginally in the overall Electoral College vote tally. But, things can change quickly.
Trump claimed victory
Yet, Trump has already claimed victory and has said he’ll move the Supreme Court to dispute the counting process.
Shortly after Biden said he was confident of winning the contest once the votes are counted, Trump appeared at the White House to declare victory and said his lawyers would be taking his case to the US Supreme Court without specifying what they would claim.
“We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election,” Trump said. “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 U.S. Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop,” he tweeted.
Election laws, coronavirus and Mail-in ballots
Voting has stopped across the country, but election laws in US states require all votes to be counted, and many states routinely take days to finish counting legal ballots.
More votes stood to be counted this year than in the past as people voted early by mail and in-person due to the COVID-19 epidemic. Voters were urged to vote early this time, especially through mail-in ballots, to avoid queues amid the COVID-19 epidemic. More than 101 million early votes had been cast.
Furthermore, about 26.8 million mail ballots are yet to be returned to polling authorities. Thus, over 101 million votes would have been cast and recorded even before Election Day.
Voters had already cast about 73.4 percent of the total votes counted in the 2016 presidential election, even before Election Day. But counting of mail ballots is more laborious and that is delaying the result.
Biden leads 228 to 213 over Trump
Biden leads 228 to 213 over Trump in the fight for 270 Electoral College votes. Even without Pennsylvania, Biden victories in Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin, along with his projected win in a congressional district in Nebraska, would put him in the White House, as long as he also holds the states that Trump lost in 2016.
Trump won the battlegrounds of Florida, Ohio and Texas, dashing Biden’s hopes for a decisive early victory.
Biden is now leading in the battleground state of Wisconsin, according to media reports. Only 8,442 votes are separating Biden and Trump in the state. Wisconsin has 10 electoral votes, which would be crucial for either of the two candidates to move closer to the 270-mark.
North Carolina remains very tightly contested. Trump is leading Biden by less than 2 percentage points. Most major news organizations have not called the battleground state in favor of any candidate.
According to Associated Press, the race is too early to call as “there are still about 200,000 mail-in ballots left to count.”
Trump would seek to dispute the election results
The question everyone is asking after President Donald Trump proclaimed victory over Democratic challenger Joe Biden. The premature move confirmed worries Democrats had voiced for weeks that Trump would seek to dispute the election results.
That could set off any number of legal and political dramas in which the presidency could be determined by some combination of the courts, state politicians and Congress.
In 2000, a month-long legal tussle between then-Republican candidate George W. Bush and Democratic nominee Al Gore had led to the controversial 5–4 Supreme Court ruling which ended the recount, leading Bush to in the crucial state of Florida by just 537 votes. This, in turn, helped Bush clinch 271 electoral votes – one more than the majority mark.
Pakistan looks forward to working with the winner
The government of Pakistan has expressed a desire to working with whoever wins the United States election — Republican President Donald Trump or Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Last week, Prime Minister Imran Khan had said Pakistan wants “even-handed treatment” from the United States with respect to India, especially on the Kashmir issue.
He warned that the region was a hotspot and could flare up at any time. “That’s why we expect the US, as the strongest country in the world, to be even-handed, whoever becomes president.
The US thinks India will contain China, which is a completely flawed premise,” the PM said.
Will the new US govt change his policies for South Asia?
In fact, Trump’s presidency has left the US more divided and polarised than ever, making almost a civil-war-like position in the country. no matter what the result of the 2020 election, the existing Trumpism is not going to go away.
For most Americans, it is a combat for the soul of the nation. But its effects will be similarly consequential for the globe at large. Perhaps Trump the most controversial American president in recent history, he has disrupted the existing world order.
Rejecting multilateralism, he has pursued a policy of unilateralism and American exclusiveness thus intensifying international conflicts.
Triumph for his Democratic rival would certainly change the course of American foreign policy and mark a return to multilateralism wherever it suits the broader American interest.
The fall of Trump would at least restore some order to America’s relations with other countries, in particular its allies. However, t there is no likelihood of any change in the American policy on Afghanistan no matter who wins the race for the White House.
Amusingly, there is absolute unanimity of views between Trump and his competitor Joe Biden on the issue of removal of the American forces from Afghanistan despite some trivial differences of approach. The same may be factual for the policy towards South Asia generally.
