Biden gains ground in White House vote count

Democrat Joe Biden edged closer to victory in the U.S. presidential race on Thursday as election officials tallied votes in the handful of states that will determine the outcome and protesters took to the streets.   

 President Donald Trump alleged fraud without providing evidence, filed lawsuits and called for recounts in a race yet to be decided two days after polls closed.   

 The race was coming down to close contests in five states. Biden held narrow leads in Nevada and Arizona while Trump was watching his slim advantage fade in must-win states Pennsylvania and Georgia as mail-in and absentee votes were being counted.    With tensions rising, about 200 of Trump’s supporters, some armed with rifles and handguns, gathered outside an election office in Phoenix, Arizona, on Wednesday following unsubstantiated rumors that votes were not being counted.   

 In Detroit, officials blocked about 30 people, mostly Republicans, from entering a vote-counting facility amid unfounded claims that the vote count in Michigan was fraudulent.   

The contentious election aftermath capped a vitriolic campaign that unfolded amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 233,000 people in the United States and left millions more jobless. The country has also grappled with months of unrest involving protests over racism and police brutality. Biden, 77, predicted victory on Wednesday and launched a website to begin the transition to a Democratic-controlled White House. 
WASHINGTON 
REUTERS Nov 5

Election observer accuses Trump of ‘gross abuse of office’

BERLIN AFP Nov5, 2020   
The head of an international observer mission to the US  elections accused Donald Trump on Thursday of a “gross abuse of office”  after the president alleged he was being cheated and demanded that vote  counting be halted.   
 “The most disturbing thing was that with presidential  fanfare of the White House, that is, with all the insignia of power, the  American commander-in-chief called for an end to the count because of  his purported victory,” Michael Link told the German daily  Stuttgarter Zeitung.   

 “That was a gross abuse of office,” he said, adding that Trump’s “claims of manipulation are baseless”.   
Link, who works for the Organisation for Security and  Co-operation in Europe, warned that Trump’s repeated false allegations  of fraud could have far-reaching consequences.