The results of the US election will be officially announced on January 6th. A group of Republican MPs want to protest – and so delay the announcement.
There is likely to be a delay in the official reading of the results of the US presidential election in Congress on January 6th. After a group of Republican MPs from the US House of Representatives, Josh Hawley, a Republican senator, announced on Wednesday (local time) that he would appeal the results that day. As a reason, he wrote on Twitter that there were irregularities in the election.
The incumbent US President Donald Trump lost the election to his Democratic challenger Joe Biden in early November – by a clear margin. Trump has so far stubbornly refused to admit defeat. The Republican claims he was defeated by massive fraud. Neither Trump nor his lawyers have provided any substantive evidence to support these claims. More than 50 lawsuits from the Trump camp have so far been thrown out of courts, including the US Supreme Court.
The traditional procedure could be delayed
On January 6th, the House of Representatives and the Senate will meet to read the votes from the states and officially announce the result. Only then is it official who has won the election. There have long been plans among Trump’s Republicans in the House of Representatives to appeal the reading. In order to force both chambers to deliberate on the election result, the law requires at least one MP and one senator to object. With Hawley’s participation, that requirement would be met.
According to the Science Service of the US Congress, such protests have only taken place twice since 1887: in 1969 and 2005. In 2005, the objection of a Democratic MP was supported by a Democratic Senator. The action merely delayed the traditional procedure of reading out the results, which is likely to result in January as well.
House leader Democrat Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday after Hawley’s announcement that she had no doubt that Biden’s win would be confirmed on Jan. 6.