The Republican candidate Donald Trump was elected on Tuesday as the 45th president of the United States, defeating his Democrat rival Hillary Clinton. The republicans also won the US senate by 51%. According to the head of Clinton’s campaign, John Podesta, Clinton will have nothing to say tonight about the state of the race.
US citizens don’t vote for the presidential candidate directly, but rather for an electoral college, which is a group of people appointed by the party in each state. When the state voted in favour of a candidate, then the electoral college of the party casts their vote for the candidate in their state capital in December.
The number of electors from each state is equal to the number of members of congress each state has. Each state in the US has a different number in the electoral votes it has based on the size of its population. The total number of electoral votes is 538. For the candidate to win the elections, the candidate must secure at least 270 electoral votes.
California has the highest number of electors, with 55. Although Clinton secured states with a large number of votes, she lost key swing states to win the presidency, amid reported economic deterioration in the US when Trump began to lead in the race.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said earlier this week that Trump is not permitted to win the elections. He also added that Clinton receives donations from the same people who are funding ISIS, pointing fingers at Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Assange’s claims were based on emails revealed last month by WikiLeaks.
