Washington
US Democrat Joe Biden moved closer to victory in the American presidential race on Thursday as election officials tallied votes in the handful of states that will determine the outcome. Meanwhile 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 more two days after polls closed.
With tensions rising, about 200 of Trump’s supporters, some armed with rifles and handguns, gathered outside an election office in Phoenix, Arizona, 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.
Anti-Trump protesters in other cities demanded that vote counting continue. Police arrested 11 people and seized weapons in Portland, Oregon after reports of rioting, while arrests were also made in New York, Denver and Minneapolis. Over 100 events are planned across the country between Wednesday and Saturday.
The presidential 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.—Agencies
