Mukiibi Eric
The current presidential election period in the US presents an exciting time in the country’s politics with the heat rising between the Republican and Democrats’ candidates – Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. After a long confrontation within the Democratic Party, which began five days after the June 27 debate with Texas congressman Lloyd Dogget, who said that “it was time for Mr. Biden to make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw;
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This resulted in many queries in regards to the President’s candidacy, who should be the party ticket holder in the forthcoming United States of America general presidential election scheduled to happen on November 5, 2024, nonetheless of the critics and pressure from democratic politicians, party megadonors who had suspended donations to Democrats, and fundraisers such as Hollywood actor George Clooney who suggested a new nominee and voters.
Therefore, aged President Joe Biden decided to end his re-election bid and appoint Vice President Kamala Alice to take on the mantle.
A 59-year-old and first-ever Vice President of the United States of America, Kamala Harris, from a prosecutor to a politician, envisages a milestone in her life. She was born on October 20, 1964, in Oaldard, California. In her 2019 memoir “The Truth We Hold,” she noted that her name is pronounced as comma-la, which means lotus flower, an imperative symbol in Indian culture.
Her mother and father had immigrated from India in the late 1950s and Jamaica, respectively, thus becoming black Americans by birth, but Republicans, more so Donald Trump, criticize her as an Indian.In 1982, Harris enrolled at Howard University, a historically Black university in Washington, DC, and she was able to join Alpha Kappa Alpha, the country’s oldest Black sorority, and procured a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics.
After college, she returned to California and attended law school at the University of California Hastings. After graduating from law school, Harris spent three decades as a prosecutor, serving as a deputy district attorney for Oakland’s Alameda County before she was elected in 2004 to be district attorney of San Francisco.
From there, in 2011, she became the first Black American woman and Asian American elected to be the attorney general of California. In 2015, Harris launched a campaign for the US Senate where both former and ever-first negro to become the President of the United the United States President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Biden endorsed her campaign, and according to her memoir, she wrote that 2016 election night was surreal for many reasons irrespective of her win.
During her tenure in the US Senate, she served on the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Select Committee on Intelligence before launching a bid for the White House in 2019.
Having achieved many things, experience procured from top offices and records made, motivated Kamala to seek a Democratic Party presidential ticket towards the 2021 presidential elections alongside Joe Biden and many others where Biden emerged as a victor.
Though this never stopped Biden from selecting her as a running mate, on January 20, 2021, Harris was sworn in as the country’s first female, first black, and first South Asian vice president in the history of America. Now, Kamala Harris is the Democratic Party flagbearer towards the most top office in America, and if it goes in her favor, she will be ever the first woman to be elected as President of the United States.
However, in case it does not, per the American Constitution, the Vice President is under a mandate to declare the newly elected President, and in case it does not, per the American Constitution, the Vice President is under a mandate to announce the newly elected President at Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
The question is whether or not Kamala will declare Trump as the next President for his second and last term because if she does not do so, Trump cannot be sworn as American President irrespective of him winning the Electoral College vote.
As I conclude, America is considered the top democratic country. This governance calls for so many indispensable requisites, such as rule of law and respect for human rights and freedoms.
However, my concern is with how popular and electoral college voting is conducted because there is a way you can confuse me that American citizens can vote for candidates in the popular vote and then overturn in the electoral college by a few individuals who represent different states.
Therefore, this confusion invites me to advocate for a simple majority system for only the popular vote and the complete eradication of the Electoral College.
About the Author,
Mukiibi Eric is Year 3:2 student at Nkumba University School of Law, former elected Member of Parliament representing School of Law in the 29th Guild Parliament 2023-2024.
