Democrat Joe Biden is in the cusp of victory. Official announcement of the election result may come later as counting of votes takes days in the US. But maverick President Donald Trump ensured one thing: He made America a loser in the eye of the world with his claim of victory and ludicrous allegations. Trump has always been unpredictable. This time, he stooped to the level of absurdity. He did what no leader in a democratic country would do. He declared himself the winner while lakhs of ballots remained to be counted. He called for stopping the counting without any rhyme or reason. It is nothing but illegal to not count the votes cast.

Trump’s act of making a ‘victory speech’ in the middle of counting of votes is a mockery of election in the oldest democracy in the world. His allegation that victory is being stolen from him is nothing but falsehood. His assertion that he would knock the doors of Supreme Court to get the counting stopped goes to prove his desperation to cling to power by any means. It is pertinent to recall that during the electioneering, even before a single vote was cast, he had declared his intention of going to the apex court to stop Biden from becoming the President. This betrayed his doubts over re-election. Moreover, his over-confidence of getting a favourable verdict from the apex court is based on a conservative majority of Judges with three of them being his own appointees. Luckily, courts in some of the States, where Trump’s Campaign filed petitions, have rejected the plea to stop counting.

This election brought out many fault lines in America. The country may not have seen such a polarized campaigning in the last few decades. Trump’s speeches were meant to present himself as the leader of white majority and create a fear psychosis among them. He went to the extent of saying that victory of Biden would lead to the collapse of the country. He forgot that he is the President of the United States of America rather than a section of the people. His speeches were loaded with personal attacks on both Biden and Vice-Presidential candidate Kamala Harris. He unleashed abuses against his opponents. He knew defeat was staring at him. His strategy of winning election was not through democratic means. He thought of manipulating the results. But that has not worked.

The vociferous allegations and counter allegations have once again brought out the drawbacks of America’s electoral system. The inordinate delay in counting of votes is one of them. A faster voting and counting mechanism will reduce the chances of manipulation. Another weakness is the electoral college system which denies Presidency to the candidate for whom majority of Americans voted. Democracy loses its meaning when its soul – the electoral system – gets weakened. The system gets further undermined when leaders like Trump unabashedly use strong arm tactics to achieve their outlandish ambitions. Americans have acted with determination to throw out the self-seeking leader lock, stock and barrel.