US election 2020: Trump repeats victory claim as Biden leads

United States President, Donald Trump has restated his declaration of victory.

At the White House on Thursday night, Trump said by “legal votes”, he won the election.

The President reiterated his decision to file litigations to challenge results in some states.

“If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.

“I challenge Joe and every Democrat to clarify that they only won legal votes, because they talk about votes, and I think they should use the word, ‘legal’”, he said.

There has been no evidence that illegal or late votes were being counted.

Official results show Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the lead.

To be declared winner, a candidate must win 270 of the 538 electoral college votes.

The former Senator has secured 253, while Trump trails with 214 as at 9am Nigerian time.

In nationwide figures, Biden has polled more than 73.7 million votes (50.5%) and Trump 69,655,186 votes (47.7%), according to the New York Times.

On Friday, the former Vice President told his supporters to “keep the faith”

“The people will not be silenced, be bullied, or surrender. Every vote must be counted”, he tweeted.

Campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, said Biden now has won more votes than any presidential candidate in history.

“Because he sees the same data we do and knows he’s losing, Donald Trump continues to push a flailing strategy designed to prevent people’s votes from being counted”, Dillon said.

Counting is ongoing in key states. This is due to the massive number of mail-in and provisional ballots.