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Monday 7 November 2016 - 12:11

US Elections, Candidates’ Problems with Accepting Defeat

Story Code : 581584
US Elections, Candidates’ Problems with Accepting Defeat
In other words, in this year’s US presidential election not only it is important to see who wins the race but also the way of reaction of the losing side of the election is as equal if not more significant.
 
The question that comes down here is: will the losing candidate accept the results? Will his/her supporters accede to the results while the American nation is deeply divided now? These are very essential questions that these days present themselves as the competition tightens between the two Republican and Democratic candidates.
 
Answering the abovementioned questions is a bit of difficult job as the evidences indicate that this year’s US presidential election is very controversial and will possibly stir some post-Election Day chaos.
 
Just a week ahead of the election, the polls appeared to show tight competition and close percentages between the two candidates. In some states the gap between them is almost bridged. According to a report by the Washington Post that appeared on Saturday, the two candidates won 44 percent of votes in Nevada. Furthermore, in Florida Hilary Clinton led Donald Trump by only a fragile 1 percent. The result in Florida is 47 percent to 46 percent. In Georgia, Trump secured 47 percent while Clinton won 45 percent. Trump also led Clinton 46-41 percent in Iowa, as he beat the Republican candidate 35-28 percent in Utah. The results indicate that Evan McMullin, a former agent of the CIA and an independent candidate in the US election, has swept big votes in Utah.
 
All of the evidences show that the results of the vote in the Election Day would be very close, too.
 
Raising the possibility of vote fraud in the election, WikiLeaks' revelations about behind-the-scene attempts of Democratic Party to manipulate the inter-party elections in a bid to remove Clinton’s key rival Bernie Sanders, unpredictability of Donald Trump, and his controversial personality all push the observers to predict that the US presidential election will not simply end peacefully. In fact, it will witness a slew of developments and happenings the most likely of them is post-election protests and violence.
 
Violence and demonstrations after the election are not unprecedented in the US. We still can remember the clashes of the two opposing campaigns in the presidential election in November 2000. At that time, a difference of only several hundred in votes of the two rivals George Bush and Al Gore in Florida determined the winner of the race, but this closeness in votes postponed announcement of the winner for one month. The Democrats called for a recount of the votes in Florida. At that time, the governor of Florida was Jeb Bush, the brother of the Republican candidate George Bush. The Democratic Party raised possibility of manipulation of the votes in favor of the Republican candidate. But later the Supreme Court of the United States announced that there was no need to recount the votes of Florida and so George Bush was confirmed winner by the top authority. Consequently, Al Gore failed to end a 150-year-old failure of the Republican Party to win three terms in a row in the presidential election.
 
This failure keeps going on up to now as the Democratic Party failed to occupy the White House more than two terms in a row. Once Hilary Clinton wins this race, the Democrats will secure a new record. Actually besides winning the third term respectively, they will be the first to send a woman to the White House.
 
All in all, no presidential election in the history of the US has been as controversial and affected by side issues as this year’s election. No candidates have ever been so harsh in dealing with each other. Trump saw a considerable boost of votes just days before the Election Day and bridged the gaps with Clinton as much as he could. But the polarization in the US society has prepared the ground for the losing side to possibly reject the vote results.
 
Asked about rejection of the results once he loses elections, Donald Trump tried to evade answering, stating that he will decide with regard to the developments of the election process and the day of results. He has so far declined to firmly promise to accept the results should he lose the election. On the contrary, he several times expressed distrust in the country’s election mechanisms and warned against possible organized fraud in favor of the rival candidate.
 
US 2016 presidential elections can witness events never seen before as the campaigns saw unprecedented happenings.
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