The wait for the results of the agonising electoral process in the US is finally over as the American media declared on Saturday former Vice-President Joe Biden the new and 46th president of the United States.
Biden clinched the race by winning the battleground state of Pennsylvania, unseating President Donald Trump in an extraordinarily tight and polarising presidential race that showed a divided nation.
The electoral process took longer than most people expected as several so-called swing states changed hands in the past two days due to the massive number of mail-in, absentee and early voting ballots. President Trump, who is reluctant to concede, has said he will resort to the courts to try to reverse the results arguing that the polls were rigged in favour of his Democratic opponent.
The president-elect has an enormous task ahead of him to reunite the nation, restore its trust in the system, rebuild the economy and work with America’s allies to sustain a multilateral global order.
The legal process will take time, perhaps weeks or even months. However, Americans seem to be wanting to put all this behind and move on. Senior leaders of the President’s Republican party have advised him to drop the legal challenge because it might appear that the leader of the nation is undermining the integrity of the process — something never heard of in centuries of American political process.
It is expected though that President Trump will finally concede. He might take his time but will finally see the light because he realises that America, which has gone through tough times this year, cannot afford a prolonged period of uncertainty.
Particularly difficult year
This year has been a particularly difficult year for the US. Soon after the painfully long impeachment of the president ended, the coronavirus pandemic struck. So far, it has killed more than 240,000 Americans in addition to the staggering nearly 10 million infected. The pandemic has devastated the economy costing millions of Americans their jobs. In the summer, the country was hit by unprecedented nationwide anti-racism protests following the death of a black man in the custody of police in Minneso-ta.
The election rhetoric was exceptionally divisive. Aside from the few conciliatory remarks by the candidates, the campaign centred on an ‘Us-versus-Them’ theme all along, pitting one half of the population against the other. This election has inflicted a heavy moral toll on the US.
Today, the world looks at not only a divided America but also a scarred nation where more than 70 million citizens who voted for Trump have shown serious doubts in the system. The economy is in a deep recession — the worst since the Great Depression of 1929. Millions of families have lost their livelihood due to the pandemic.
The president-elect has an enormous task ahead of him to reunite the nation, restore its trust in the system, rebuild the economy and work with America’s allies to sustain a multilateral global order.
