The US Presidential Election was held on November 3. But more than two weeks down the road, no one can ‘truly claim’ with any certainty who the winner has been. This is for the simple reason that the incumbent President as well as participant in the election has not conceded defeat, yet. This is almost unprecedented in contemporary history of US Presidential elections. The tradition in US Presidential election in living memory has always been the vanquished conceding defeat in the night of election day based on already fully or nearly fully declared results and on going voting trends. But this tradition was shattered this year as the Democratic contender in the election, Joe Biden, prematurely declared his triumph in public based on sheer media reports.

But clearly he was not expected to do so because this year due to corona virus Americans were uniquely allowed to send their votes through the postal service. President Trump registered his misgiving about such postal ballots saying that these could be used for fraudulent objectives in the election. President Trump had reasons for such apprehensions as a record number of some 10 million voters voted in this manner and later credible evidences surfaced that the postal ballot system was indeed used to corrupt ends.

President Trump was seen winning overwhelmingly almost everywhere when voting time ended on November 3. But when the postal ballots started to be counted, the scene very abruptly and strangely changed with not a single vote being cast for Trump and all went to Biden in many places specially in the battleground states where the fate of the election would be determined. In many places in these battleground states, men and women long dead were found out in the voters’ list and they were shown as having voted. Then there were cases of glitches in the counting machines that led to sudden switching of thousands and thousands of votes in these machines withing a twinkling of an eye from Trump to Biden. As a consequence of such charges, several battleground states are already recounting the ballots or could declare a full recount.

The Trump team is now engaged in lodging due cases on these frauds and irregularities in courts and till these are adjudicated none can be sure of who got how many votes. If the courts or Election Commission at state level fail to address these litigations satisfactorily, then President Trump has warned that he would be prepared to challenge the legality of the entire election 2020 in the Supreme Court.

The state legislators are dominated by Republicans. They too have the powers to consider that frauds were really committed and they, therefore, may decide to declare that the winner in their states was President Trump and nor Biden. In that case they may send or advise the electors from their states to vote for President Trump when it comes to deciding who shall be President in the floor of the US Senate on December 10.

Specially notable is the hard reality that the US Election Commission has not yet counted all votes or certified the results of the election completely and finally. Therefore, the Commission is in no position to even officially declare who the winner is under the circumstances. But Joe Biden has unilaterally and in self styled manner declared himself as the winner and claiming illegitimately all the privileges of a duly elected President elect though for all practical purposes it is still an wide open issue and at the present stage nothing can be definitely said about who would ultimately be the President of the United States.

On the other hand, what President Trump had said earlier about his winning the election was mainly a projection by him based on non controversial or unchallenged declared poll results and voting trends. At no point he meant that he should be considered as the officially or duly elected President. He only probably expressed or implied his anxiety that the results were being manipulated or cheated to rob him of victory.

It is interesting to note that uncertainty surrounding this US Presidential election is starkly seen reflected in the attitude of the world powers in greeting either of the two contenders. Very conspicuously, both Russia and China have not yet greeted Biden on his self-declared victory. They are watching carefully how the situation evolves in the USA before making a move in this regard. This stance is very different from other times when governments of these two major powers were seen going head over heels to congratulate the winner. Similar reluctance is also seen among governments in other important countries as they are also seen hesitating to congratulate Joe Biden.

In sum, it is still too early to conclude that Joe Biden will be able to sustain his winning claim all the way. Although the media in the USA unlawfully, illegally and too prematurely declared Biden as the victor, the same is still to be established surely . It should be also clear to all by now why President Trump had consistently called the greater part of the media in his country as ‘fake news’ or blamed them for partisanship.

There is still a long way to go between now and January 20 –when the next Presidential inauguration is due-to know who is the true winner of Presidential Election 2020 in USA.