An explosion triggered by a police munition is noticed whilst supporters of US President Donald Trump collect in front of US Capitol Building in Washington. (Reuters)
The US has plunged into a critical crisis with thousands of Donald Trump supporters storming the Capitol Hill against the certification of Joe Biden’s victory as President. This occurred immediately after outgoing President Donald Trump addressed his supporters close to White House and asked them to march on the Capitol to express their anger at the “disputed” outcomes. Trump has been claiming fraud in the election and had in reality approached the Supreme Court, which turned down a quantity of petitions questioning the outcomes. The visuals of chaos from the Capitol are unprecedented and have under no circumstances been noticed ahead of for the duration of transfer of energy in America.
While some squarely blame Donald Trump for this ‘grave assault on democracy’ in America, lots of also hold the current electoral program accountable for what is taking place in what is referred to as a mature and the oldest democracy in the planet. Former Lok Sabha Secretary General PDT Achary says that what is taking place in the US is pretty surprising but the issue lies in the way they elect the President. In America, the President is elected by way of an indirect voting program referred to as the Electoral College. “If the US had been following the popular vote system (in which people directly vote to elect President) Biden would have been the President and there would have been no such problem,” says Achary.
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The former secretary basic says that the ‘American system allows’ Trump to assume that he has won even when he has lost the common votes. He additional says a comparable point had occurred final time when Hillary Clinton had won the common votes but Trump won the presidency by way of the electoral college and ‘winner-takes-all system, which he believes is ‘faulty’. Achary additional says that even today Trump is asking his deputy and Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election outcomes. “It means he thinks that it is possible and there is some room (for overturning the results). This is baffling…why can’t America have an easy system instead of a complicated one,” ponders Achary.
He additional says that in contrast to India, the US has no central agency which can conduct elections and announce outcomes. “There in the US, the results are announced on TV. Every state has its own process of conducting elections and announcing results. It’s all complicated. Even today, the counting is on in Georgia,” he says, adding that the US wants to go back to the common vote program to elect the President. Trump has alleged ‘massive fraud’ in mail-in votes which is permitted for diverse time periods in diverse states. Under the mail-in vote course of action, men and women vote applying postal ballot.
Former Election Commissioner SY Quraishi blames Trump for what he referred to as erosion of democracy in the US. “Consolidation and weakening of democracy depends largely on leaders’ attitude but Trump single handedly damaged democracy like never before,” he says. “After squared defeat from all around, Trump refuses to give up…and giving a call to supporters to storm Capital is a criminal act…hope he will be prosecuted for this in due course,” Quraishi says. When asked what he thinks about the course of action followed in the US, the former commissioner says, “The process is fine. But a questionable thing in the process is the difference between electoral college and popular votes. In the last elections, Hillary Clinton was ahead by more than 30 lakh votes but for the electoral college…that to my mind is a defective system which has been questioned many times in the US.” He hopes that some day the US will transform that program due to the fact “democracy means popular choice”.