Des Moines (USA): Iowa's vote kick-starting the 2020 US presidential contest degenerated into a fiasco marred by major delays on Monday, with Bernie Sanders claiming a slim lead in the Democratic caucus, citing partial unofficial results.
Figures released by the leftist senator's campaign, five hours after the caucuses opened across Iowa, showed Pete Buttigieg in second spot, a strong showing for the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who was a national unknown just one year ago.
“Iowa, you have shocked the nation,” the 38-year-old military reservist told loudly cheering supporters in what sounded very much like a victory speech. “Because tonight, an improbable hope became an undeniable reality.”
With chaos on the ground as Democratic party officials reportedly told campaigns not to expect results before sometime Tuesday, Sanders, running as a democratic socialist, took to the microphones to proclaim he had “a good feeling we're going to be doing very, very well here in Iowa.
“Tonight in this enormously consequential 2020 election, the first state in the country has voted, and today marks the beginning of the end for Donald Trump,” said the 78-year-old.
Iowa is a closely-watched test in the months-long process to determine who will face the Republican president in November.
Sanders later took the bold step of releasing internal, unpublished results from nearly 40 percent of precincts, showing him with 28.62 percent of the state delegate equivalent, the all-important figure used to determine who wins the Iowa caucuses.
Buttigieg earned 25.71 percent, followed by progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren on 18.42 percent, the data indicated.
Former vice president Joe Biden, the national frontrunner, was in fourth spot, at 15.08 percent, a disappointing showing for the candidate who has consistently claimed he is the person best positioned to take on and defeat Trump.
