Joe Biden has reportedly secured the requisite 270 votes from the Electoral College to become the next US president, defeating Donald Trump following days of tense updates as votes were counted in key states.
The AP has - according to the election tracker - officially called the race. The tracker currently has Biden sitting at 284 to Trump's 214.
Biden (77) will become the 46th President of the United States, and the oldest man ever sworn into office, the New York Times Reports. This news also makes Biden’s running mate, Senator Kamala Harris the first woman - and woman of colour - on a winning presidential ticket.
This news means that Biden is set to return to the White House after spending eight years as President Barack Obama's vice president.
For several days, Biden led Donald Trump with 253 electoral college votes to 214 according to most American media, with six states up for grabs (Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania). The races in five of those states (Alaska being the exception in the advantage of Trump) were too close to call.
Most American media have now reported a victory for Biden in the state of Pennsylvania, a state worth 20 electoral college votes. Adding that to the 253 votes already projected for Biden, the state brought him over the brink of the 270 votes required to win.
US citizens do not vote for a candidate but rather for an electoral college with 538 votes up for grabs. To learn more about the basics of the US electoral system, click here.
News From The Trump Camp
This news makes Donald Trump the first single-term presidents since the 1990s, according to BBC. Trump had previously claimed multiple times on Twitter that he had won big. The Trump campaign has indicated their candidate does not plan to concede.
The campaign has previously filed a barrage of lawsuits in various states claiming electoral fraud.
This story is updating
The Brussels Times
