[Current Affairs] November 06,2020 Top Pakistan Current Affairs for PPSC Test Preparation

2. Does the US have a new president-elect yet?

What’s going on? Soooo, still no winner in the US presidential election. CNN has not projected a winner in five battleground states, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada, because they’re still too close to call. There’s no confirmation from Alaska either, which historically leans towards republicans.

How are those numbers looking? As of November 6, 12:28 am EST, CNN is showing that democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, has 253 electoral votes, and republican nominee, President Donald Trump, has 213 electoral votes. They each need 270 to win.

The argument against counting more votes: President Trump, his family members, and his campaign are suggesting fraud, and accusing Democrats of stealing the election. They’re suspicious about the delayed results and vote-counting process. Yesterday, President Trump’s campaign released a statement, saying he would have won by now if people were counting “legal votes,” not the “illegal and late votes.” President Trump reiterated these claims during a press briefing at the White House. President Trump doesn’t think votes should be counted after election day. At the moment, there is no verified evidence of voting irregularities.

The argument for counting more votes: Others claim that counting all votes isn’t fraud. Mail-in ballot rules vary depending on the state. Many states require mail-in ballots to be received by election day (i.e. November 3). However, some states will still count mail-in ballots that arrive a few days after election day, which means these votes aren’t “illegal.” CNN and PBS NewsHour are saying it’s normal to not know the results of this year’s election yet, due to excess mail-in votes that are taking longer to count. COVID-19 changed the way people vote, resulting in a surge of mail-in votes and early voting. Most of the remaining votes are mail-in votes, and democrats are reportedly more inclined to vote that way.

The Trump campaign is dishing out lawsuits:

• Michigan and Pennsylvania: President Trump’s campaign sued to stop mail-in ballots from being counted in these states, insisting the campaign should get “meaningful” access to review the vote-counting process. The Michigan lawsuit got a thumbs down – republican observers were already allowed to watch the process, just in limited numbers due to social distancing guidelines. A judge in Pennsylvania budged a bit and told Philadelphia election officials to let republican observers watch the vote count from six feet away, instead of the original 20 feet distance.

• Georgia: President Trump’s campaign sued Chatham County in Georgia to make sure ballots weren’t accepted after the 7 pm deadline. However, this lawsuit didn’t come through either. A judge said there wasn’t any evidence of Chatham County receiving late ballots.

A feeling of dejavu: Some Pakistanis are drawing comparisons between elections in Pakistan, and the current US presidential election. For example, Pakistani actress Mehwish Hayat said: “Seems we are not the only ones who have a monopoly on ‘interesting’ elections.” Also, in his press briefing at the White House yesterday, President Trump claimed the election is “rigged” against him. Rigging allegations are common in Pakistan’s elections. For example, Pakistan’s opposition parties regularly allege that widespread rigging in the 2018 election brought Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan into power.

The bottom line: This is a razor-thin election, which could take longer. On top of that, President Trump thinks he’s being cheated.