[Current Affairs] November 05,2020 Top Pakistan Current Affairs for Entry Test Preparation

2. It’s not over yet…

What’s going on? We still don’t know the winner of the United States (US) presidential election. The election has gone into overtime since results in some key states are still rolling in. As of November 4, 11:06pm EST, CNN reported that democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, has 253 electoral votes, and republican nominee, President Donald Trump, has 213. Each candidate needs 270 to win.

The details: CNN called Wisconsin and Michigan for Biden, which were up in the air on Tuesday night (i.e. election night). However, CNN hasn’t projected a winner in Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania yet.

Tell me more: In a tweet, President Trump went ahead and claimed Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, and Michigan … just like that. Twitter flagged his tweet with a link that said “official sources may not have called the race when this was tweeted.”

The context: On Tuesday night Biden said “I’m optimistic about this outcome,” while President Trump said, “frankly, we did win this election.” President Trump also alleged that fraud was taking place, but didn’t give examples. President Trump basically tried to claim victory even though millions of legitimate absentee and mail-in ballots hadn’t been counted yet. Plus, while President Trump was speaking, races in key battleground states were still in progress. Several uncounted votes were mail-in ballots and votes in urban areas that are presumed to be pro-democratic.

Looking ahead: President Trump’s campaign is coming down hard on Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia.

• Wisconsin: President Trump’s campaign wants a recount in Wisconsin.

• Pennsylvania and Michigan: President Trump’s campaign said it filed lawsuits in both states to temporarily halt vote counting until campaign observers get “meaningful” access to ballot processing and counting sites.

• Georgia: President Trump’s campaign filed a lawsuit against the Chatham County Board of Elections to pause the state’s vote counting. The lawsuit asked a judge to make the county secure and account for any ballots received after 7pm on election day. In Georgia, ballots have to be received by 7pm on election day in order to be counted.

• There’s more in Pennsylvania: President Trump’s campaign asked the US Supreme Court to intervene in a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision that allows mail-in ballots to be counted up until Friday if they are postmarked by November 3 (i.e. election day). Pennsylvania had 3.1 million mail-in ballots, which are taking time to count.

Anything else? 19-time Grammy-winning rapper, Kanye West, ran for US president as an independent, and voted for himself. He only managed to become a candidate in 12 states. His country-wide vote total is 60,000+. He didn’t get enough votes to become president. However, he might try again in 2024. Would you vote for West?

The bottom line: Pakistanis are following this election closely, and coming up with some creative memes while waiting for results. #USelection2020 is trending in Pakistan’s twittersphere.