All eyes on US presidential poll

The world is watching America this Tuesday to find out if President Barack Obama remains in the White House or will pave the way to prospective tenant Mitt Romney after the presidential poll.

Democrat Obama and Republican challenger Romney made a frantic dash to a series of crucial swing States on Sunday, delivering their final arguments to voters on the last day of an extraordinarily close race for the White House.

After a long, bitter and expensive campaign, national polls showed Obama and Romney were essentially deadlocked ahead of Tuesday’s election, although Obama has a slight advantage in the eight or nine battleground States that will decide the winner.

Obama was the first to visit New Hampshire on Sunday where hundreds gathered in the City of Concord at a minus one degree celcius temperature and waited for over three hours just to hear him articulate his policies once more.

At about 1 pm, he arrived dressed casually in a black cardigan, windbreaker and black slacks soon after former president Bill Clinton gave his speech in support of the incumbent.

Obama arrived with less pomp, but with a loud shout: “Are you ready to go? You gotta be fired up after president Bill Clinton.”

His arrival was accompanied by screams of approval and welcome as chants of “Four more years, four more years” filled the air.

Obama de-campaigned Romney’s policies, arguing an election is not just about policies, but trust as well. Obama continued by patting himself on the back for his success which included the death of Osama Bin Laden and ending the war in Iraq.

Romney’s New Hampshire rally was also on Sunday night from 6pm local time.

The election’s outcome will impact on a variety of domestic and foreign policy issues, from the looming “fiscal cliff” of spending cuts and tax increases that could kick in at the end of the year to questions about how to handle illegal immigration or the thorny challenge of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

The balance of power in Congress will also be at stake, with Obama’s Democrats now expected to narrowly hold their Senate majority and Romney’s Republicans favoured to retain control of the House of Representatives.

US elections are important to Malawi as America helps the country financially and through technical expertise in sectors such as energy, agriculture, education and health. For example, in August this year, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Malawi and pledged a $46 million grant to boost the country’s agricultural sector in the next three years.

Currently, Malawi is benefiting from a $350 million grant from the US government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) to revitalise the ailing energy sector.

US is a major global economic, policy and strategic player, with significant influence in many parts of the world.