Washington, (Samajweekly) Supporters of US President Donald Trump took to the streets across the country to protest against the results of the 2020 presidential election after Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris were declared the winners.
After four full days of waiting patiently for the slow march of vote counting to work itself out, Biden, 77, pulled off one of the great political turn-arounds in America by defeating Trump.
Exactly 160 years ago around this time, Abraham Lincoln was elected US President.
Biden’s victory came at around 11.30 a.m. (local time) on Saturday, when NBC, BBC and The Washington Post called Pennsylvania for Biden.
Shortly after the declaration, supporters of the President took to the streets in the states of Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin where Biden was either declared the winner or where he leads in the vote tally, The Hill news website reported.
In front of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta, at least 200 demonstrators gathered, with some chanting Georgia, which is traditionally Republican, “is not a blue state”.
Protests were also staged in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where Trump supporters shouted slogans like “stop the steal”.
Demonstrators also gathered in Madison, Wisconsin, to protest the results.
Meanwhile in Salem, Oregon, hundreds of protesters rallied outside he Oregon State Capitol.
Protesters in Lansing, Michigan, were praying together as they did not believe he had lost and cast doubt on the validity of the election results, The Hill reported citing a witness as saying.
Vote counting continues in Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Alaska and North Carolina.
Trump leads Biden in Alaska and North Carolina.
The President has refused to concede and in a tweet in all caps, said: “THE OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED INTO THE COUNTING ROOMS. I WON THE ELECTION, GOT 71,000,000 LEGAL VOTES. BAD THINGS HAPPENED WHICH OUR OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED TO SEE. NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE. MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WERE SENT TO PEOPLE WHO NEVER ASKED FOR THEM.”
