New York and other cities across the United States on
Tuesday remained apprehensive over potential violence in spite of relative calm
as vote counting gets underway in the country’s presidential election.
As of Tuesday afternoon, many businesses in New York were
still fortifying their storefronts with plywood ahead of announcement of
results.
Similar scenes played out in other places like Chicago,
Atlanta, Denver, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
“I am not taking chances, my friend”, a jewellery shop
owner, who identified himself as Navid, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
in Manhattan, New York.
“I agree with you that there is calm right now, but nobody
can tell what happens when the results start coming,” he said.
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Tuesday has been described as the most divisive U.S.
presidential polls in decades, and it came after a long and bitter campaign.
There are reports of clashes between supporters of the two
major candidates, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden,
in New York and elsewhere.
Trump has repeatedly refused to commit to a peaceful
transition of power should he lose the election.
The president is insisting that the winner must be declared
on Tuesday night, before many votes will be counted.
These have left many Americans worried that he would not
concede if he loses.
Mr Basil Njoku, a Nigerian-American, described the
happenings as unbecoming of America, “a country that has been touted to be the
bastion of democracy”.
Njoku said: “I have been in this country for more than 20
years, and I can tell you that what is happening is un-American.
“The whole world looks up to the U.S. as a perfect example
of how to get it right.
“Election deals with human emotions and often times, America
handles it with sportsmanship on Election Day you know the loser will concede
and the winner will try to bring everybody together and build the country.
“But what we are seeing in the media about potential
conflicts, and the clash between supporters of the rivals here in Manhattan. It
is un-American.”
Mk Pathak, 75, said he had never witnessed a U.S.
presidential election with “extreme divergence in the two major candidates”
like this one.
Pathak, an entrepreneur and philanthropist of Indian
descent, said Biden and Trump are fighting over nothing, as the issues remained
the same.
“Before now in America during a Republican government, there
was a democratic cabinet member, and vise versa, it was like that.
“This time it appears these two are poles apart, but whoever
wins in the end will be interested in opening the economy while controlling the
COVID-19 pandemic,” he said
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