•Precious Kadodo: Guest Blogger
Over the years, politicians from Africa have been known for contesting election results and not conceding defeat. The year 2020 has brought a dramatic paradigm shift with countries that stand on high moral ground in terms of democracy experiencing serious political turmoil.
The U.S Supreme Court
Following the declaration of Joe Biden as the president-elect of the United States of America, Donald Trump has insisted he is not conceding the U.S election, despite seemingly acknowledging for the first time that Democrat Joe Biden won.
President elect, Joe Biden
"He (Joe Biden) won because the Election was Rigged," the Republican president wrote on Twitter, repeating unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud. The man in Washington has launched a slew of lawsuits in key states, but has not provided any evidence to back his claims of fraud.
All the lawsuits have so far been unsuccessful
Joe Biden was elected the 46th President of the United States of America with Kamala Harris as the Vice-President elect. Biden has broken the record by exceeding the 270 electoral college threshold and surpassed the five million mark in popular states. Something that Barack Obama did not do.
Vice President elect, Kamala Harris
Trump strongly believes he won the U.S election and was hoping to serve a second term just like his predecessor. However, it seems as if America had different plans altogether; over 77 million Americans decided it was time for Trump to _vamoose._
The basis of Trump’s lawsuit is founded on the allegations that in key states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan, Republican observers were underrepresented. Apart from that, Trump claims that, there were ballots counted three days after election day and that some legal votes were rejected in Arizona and improper ballot mixing in Georgia.
Joe Biden’s lawyer, Bob Bauer has described the lawsuit as a baseless political strategy that is likely not to change the course of justice in the Supreme Court. Both Joe and Kamala are seasoned legal practitioners with a combined fifty plus years of experience in the legal trade.
The elections held in the year 2000 were the first to be decided by the U.S Supreme Court where Democrat Al Gore lost the state of Florida and the presidential election. This was followed by a highly controversial recount process that lasted over a month until the Supreme Court ruled to stop recounting in favour of Republican George W Bush who then became president.
There are few reasons to doubt that a Supreme Court populated with three of Mr. Trump's appointees would be a look to usher him into the White House for four more years. Unlike Africa, at least the American Supreme Court bench should prove to the world that institutions are not captured.
The world expects to see the judges honor and abide to their oath of office, respect institutions, the rule of law and seperation of powers. Trump is in denial, politics is a dirty game, and this time around Donald lost the game.
Will the political referees rescue Trump, overturn the election result and deliver a different outcome? Well, time will tell but one thing is for sure, convincing the U.S Supreme Court will not be a walk in the park for Trump, especially when the game is over.
Precious Kadodo is a law student at the University of Zimbabwe, @KadodoPrecious