Race to White House: Suspense

Washington: The US presidential election, in all likelihood, will go down to the wire, as incumbent Republican Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden slug it out in key battleground states. With this year's election seeing a record mail-in votes due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the suspense over who will occupy the Oval office might continue till the last state is called.

Pennsylvania, an important battleground state which holds 20 crucial electoral college votes, announced in the wee hours of Wednesday that their next update would be only after 9 am (local time). A clear picture is yet to emerge in other battleground states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, and Nevada.

So far, Trump has decisively won Texas, Ohio, Iowa, and Florida among the 13 battleground states. On the other hand, Biden has taken a decisive lead in Arizona, Minnesota, and New Hampshire.

As the results started to pour in, Trump, in an address from the White House, claimed that a "major fraud" is being perpetrated on the American people, adding that he will fight election in the Supreme Court. "Frankly we did win this election," Trump claimed. "Millions and millions of people voted for us." "A very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people," he claimed. "We were getting ready for a big celebration. We were winning everything. And all of a sudden it was just called off," he said.

Without citing any evidence, Trump claimed that a "major fraud" was being committed. "This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country," the Republican leader said.

Biden, on the other hand, asserted that he's on track to "win this election". "Keep the faith guys. We are going to win this (election)," 77-year-old Biden told a crowd in his hometown of Delaware. "We knew this was gonna go long. But who knew we were gonna go into tomorrow morning maybe even longer. But look we feel good about where we are. We really do. I'm here to tell you tonight we believe we're on track to win this election," Biden said in a speech in the wee hours of Wednesday. "We knew because of the mail-in voting this would take longer than usual. … it ain't over until every ballot is counted. Every vote is counted," Biden said in his short speech.

Biden said that they were confident about the Arizona results, which has voted for a Democrat for the first time in 72 years. "We're confident about Arizona. That's a turnaround. We also just won Minnesota. And we're still in the game in Georgia. We're feeling really good about Wisconsin and Michigan. And by the way it's going to take time to count the votes but we're going to win Pennsylvania," he said.

Biden camp 'ready to deploy' legal teams

Democrat Joe Biden's campaign has said it will fight any efforts by President Donald Trump's campaign to go to the US Supreme Court to prevent ballots from being tabulated. In a statement sent before 4 am on Wednesday, Biden campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon called Trump's statement that he will "be going to the US Supreme Court" and that he wants "all voting to stop" "outrageous, unprecedented and incorrect". O'Malley Dillon says the Biden campaign has "legal teams standing by ready to deploy to resist that effort" and that "they will prevail". "The President's statement 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," she said in the statement.

Trump declares 'victory'

Vows to move SC to stop counting

US President Donald Trump has said that he has won big. "We didn't just win Florida, we won it by a lot. We are also winning Pennsylvania by a tremendous margin," Trump said in an address from the White House. President Trump sought to declare victory even as millions of votes remained to be counted in key battleground states, saying in a speech from the White House on Wednesday he would be going to the Supreme Court to ask for "all voting to stop", alleging fraud. "Frankly, we did win this election," he said, when he was nowhere near the 270 electoral college votes he needed to win.

Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, was ahead with 238 votes to Trump's 213 at the time of writing of this report. "We want the law to be used in a proper manner. We will be going to the Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop," Trump said.