Confusion in Iowa, Bernie Sanders claims to be leading
The results of the first primaries of the Democratic Party are slow to be official. The organizers mentioned “inconsistencies” in their collection of results.
It is launch in pain. The results of the first primaries of the American Democratic Party, which were held on Monday, are still not known. Technical difficulties linked to an application making it possible to compile the results are highlighted.
Despite this, Senator Bernie Sanders, herald of the left-wing, claimed to be leading in front of the moderate Pete Buttigieg, according to his own partial figures published the night of Monday to Tuesday. “Due to the Iowa Democratic Party’s inability to publish results tonight,” Bernie’s campaign team, his nickname, released data for nearly 40% of the polling stations. Bernie Sanders would get 28.62% ahead of moderate Pete Buttigieg (25.71%) and progressive senator Elizabeth Warren (18.42%). Former Vice President Joe Biden is only fourth with 15.08%, which would represent a poor performance for the man who has been leading the polls at the national level for months.
“Today marks the beginning of the end for Donald Trump,” said Bernie Sanders. “Iowa, you surprised the country,” said Pete Buttigieg. Joe Biden spoke of a “tight” vote.
This ballot is the first in a series spread over several months and which must make it possible to designate the opponent of outgoing President Donald Trump. It must also go through primaries, but its opponents are only stooges. He also easily established himself in Iowa. The primaries are held in each State and allow the designation of delegates. These designate the champion of their party at a major national convention.
Few delegates, but a strong symbolism The Iowa primaries report only about forty delegates out of 4000 in all. But since they are the first, they can give impetus to some candidates and break the dynamics of others. On a technical level, in Iowa, the term caucus is used in place of that of the primary. For a caucus, in each room organizing a poll, voters do not place a ballot in an urn but physically move under the banner of their favorite.
The organizers mentioned “inconsistencies” in their collection of results and explained that they wanted to ensure the reliability of the data. The results may not be known until Tuesday. However, they denied any irregularities, while Donald Trump’s camp immediately accused the democratic leaders of cheating.
“The application supposed to transmit the results of the caucuses to the party did not work, as did the emergency telephone system,” protested the Biden team in a letter to the organizers, asking for “explanations” and a right of scrutiny over their “methods”. This fiasco adds to an already complex system with a total of 1,700 caucuses in Iowa.
Whether newcomers like Pete Buttigieg (38) or old like Bernie Sanders (78) and Joe Biden (77), everyone wants to be the candidate who can prevent the outgoing president from getting a second term. Billionaire Michael Bloomberg, the ex-mayor of New York, has bypassed these caucuses and is concentrating his immense fortune on states that vote later and which bring back many delegates for the nomination.
Donald Trump was scathing at the inability to get official results on Monday. Speaking of “absolute disaster,” he tweeted that “nothing works, just as it did when (the Democrats) ruled the country. The only person who can claim a very big victory in Iowa last night is Trump. "
By Le Parisien with AFP