WASHINGTON 18 Mar (ANA) - In a day of primary elections described as surreal by some observers, former Vice President Joe Biden all but cemented his status as the presumed Democratic nominee to challenge President Donald Trump in the November general election.

 

Biden swept all three states in voting on Tuesday - Illinois, Florida, and Arizona - in another blow to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders - whose early strength evaporated as African Americans and working-class whites across the country sided with Biden.

 

In the big prize of the evening, Florida, election-watchers called the state for Biden almost immediately after the polls closed at 7pm local time (23:00 GMT). Illinois was called for the former vice president within 30 minutes of the polls closing there and Arizona was handed to Biden almost as quickly.

 

In an online speech from his home in Wilmington, Delaware after the results, Biden made an explicit appeal to the younger voters who had flocked to Sanders.

 

"I hear you," Biden said. "I know what’s at stake. I know what we have to do. Our goal as a campaign, and my goal as a candidate, is to unify this party and unify this nation."

 

Ohio had been scheduled to vote on Tuesday as well, but officials in that state took the unprecedented step of ignoring a judge's order to carry on with the election and shut down polling centres out of fears over the coronavirus pandemic. The move followed similar ones in Georgia, Maryland, Louisiana, Ohio and Kentucky, all of which have postponed upcoming primaries because of the crisis.

 

Democratic party officials criticised the moves, saying state officials should focus on expanding mail-in voting and expanding the hours of days of service in order to reduce lines and crowding instead of delaying the vote entirely.(ANA)

FA/ANA/18 March 2020-----