Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Many countries, including India, have congratulated Joseph Robinette (Joe) Biden Junior on his election as the next US President, but Russia and China, America’s old and new adversaries, have remained silent to officially acknowledge the poll result.
Moscow and Beijing appeared skeptical as to who would really take oath in the White House on January 20, 2021.
Unlike in India, where the Election Commission declares results of the direct parliamentary polls, indirectly pointing at the single largest party’s victory, and its leader as the next potential Prime Minister, the US has nothing like a national poll body. Its individual states declare poll results.
Ironically, it was the American media that declared Biden as the President-elect on Saturday after the November 3 election! But the Trump team has made it clear that he does not plan to concede defeat any time soon.
If Trump remains in office as the 46th President as well, premature celebrations on Biden’s ‘victory’ would become an embarrassment to many. And Trump is unlikely to forgive them in a hurry.
Biden was declared as President-elect on Saturday and, on Sunday, he took the first steps to move into the White House in the next 73 days. This when Trump refused to concede defeat a second time as his team prepared to challenge the election result in courts this week.
On Monday, Moscow indicated it would wait for the ‘official results’ of the US presidential poll before commenting on its outcome. “We have noted that the incumbent, Mr. Donald Trump, has announced to take legal course against the vote.”
When Ella Pamfilova, who heads Russia’s Elections Commission, said that voting by mail in the just-concluded US election had paved the way for “massive voter fraud”, she actually echoed the claims made by the Trump campaigners. “I have carefully studied mail-in voting in the USA and found the process vulnerable to fraud.”
Even China waited on Monday to congratulate Biden, saying the outcome of the vote was still to be determined.
Notably, Xi Jinping is President-for-Life in China!
Trump has already launched several legal challenges even as many world leaders congratulated Biden and his running Vice-Presidential mate Kamala Harris after the Democrats were declared winners and their spontaneous celebrations erupted across America. The Trump supporters, angry and raring to do anything to avenge ‘defeat’, are apparently waiting for their time to react.
Meanwhile, a confident Trump is facing pressure from various quarters to cooperate with President-elect Biden’s team to ensure a smooth transfer of power when the new administration takes office in January.
The General Services Administration (GSA) is tasked with formally recognizing Biden as President-elect, which begins the transition. But the agency’s Trump-appointed chief, Emily Murphy, has not started the process and nor gave any guidance on when she will do so, media reports said on Monday.
Murphy, whom Trump had appointed in 2017, was warned by the Biden team to approve an official transition since the US’ national security and economy depended on a smooth and peaceful transfer of power.
But her spokeswoman said Murphy has not yet determined that “a winner is clear.”
The ensuing winter for America, and the world, may actually be hotter than ever before!
