As the incumbent president of the United States, Donald Trump, continued to lament and cry foul in the ongoing presidential election’s ballots counting, his supporters had suggested a likely alternative.
Recall that the president had wail on his Twitter account over how votes are being dumped, crying that most states he had won had been overturned overnight through mail-in ballots which were coming after election had closed.
As Trump continued to tweet, “Stop the count!”, he had been advised by his followers to activate insurrection act to effectively discontinue ballots counting.
Someone wrote:
Once again, Democrats have declared war on America & the US Constitution. It is long past time Mr. President. #InsurrectionAct
Activate insurrection act, order the impound of ALL US ballots nationwide, send the national guard to safeguard them, US Marshals to oversee counting alongside election attorneys that will verify citizenship status of every voter as well as having met all other legal thresholds.
The Insurrection Act of 1807 is a United States federal law that empowers the President of the United States to deploy U.S. military and federalized National Guard troops within the United States in particular circumstances, such as to suppress civil disorder, insurrection and rebellion.
Several political pundits had continued to describe Trump’s premature call of the election, his subsequent calls for recount and his recent cry for the election process to be stopped as an embarrassment to US allies and a disgrace to democracy.
“The Insurrection Act is act is not applicable in an election but knowing Trump’s unpredictability and zero respect for democracy, anything can happen.
“And even if he wants to, the president first needs to publish a proclamation ordering the insurgents to disperse and as you can see in this case, the more reason it is not even applicable,” one political analyst said.
The ongoing presidential election is keenly contested by the president and Joe Biden, a former vice president during the administration of Barrack Obama. As at the time of publishing this, Biden has clinched 245, while Trump held 213 of the electoral college ballots; first to reach 270 wins.
Will the president of the greatest nation in the world yield this call and throw democracy in the bin? Time will tell.
Freelanews is the editorial byline of Freelanews.com, used for staff reports, news updates, press releases, and collaborative stories produced by the Freelanews Editorial Team.
