Donald Trump has claimed victory of the US election, while legitimate votes are still being counted across the US.
The incumbent President said: “As far as I am concerned we already have won.” He added: “We were getting ready to win this election, frankly we did win this election.”
Mr Trump made the comments after vote counting was halted for the night as it became clear he was way ahead in several battleground states, including Pennsylvania (13.5% lead), Wisconsin (2.6% lead), Michigan (6.3% lead) and Georgia (2.2% lead).
It is already clear he has mathematically eliminated Joe Biden, short of fraud.
Mr Trump also claimed there is a “fraud on the American nation” and said he will go to the Supreme Court to get vote counting stopped.
He said “a very sad group of people” is trying to disenfranchise millions of his voters.
Speaking from the White House, he said: “This is a major fraud on our nation. We want the law to be used in a proper manner – so we will be going to the US Supreme Court.
“We want all voting to stop. We don’t want them to find any ballots at 4am and add them to the list. It is a very sad moment.”
The key battleground states in the election are Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.
Mr Trump has held onto the key states of Ohio, Iowa, Texas and Florida, but Biden has secured Minnesota and could be set for a significant win in Arizona, where no Democrat has won since 1996.
Mr Trump has repeatedly expressed concerns the delay could leave the election open to fraud and prior to election day he had demanded a winner be declared on the night.
The Republican has previously said: “It would be very, very proper and very nice if a winner were declared on November 3, instead of counting ballots for two weeks, which is totally inappropriate.”
He’s promised to take legal action over the result, telling reporters earlier this week: “We’re going to go in the night of, as soon as that election is over, we’re going in with our lawyers.”
He has since reaffirmed his plan, accusing the Democrats of trying to steal the election.
Mr Trump tweeted this morning: “We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it.”
Ahead of the election, polls had the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama’s former Vice-President Joe Biden, as clear favourite to win the Presidency.
But the polls have again proven to be far from accurate with key states such as Florida and Ohio fiercely contested.
And now bookmakers are giving Mr Trump a 70 percent chance of victory.
