No escaping the Trumpian chaos

Unfortunately, such is the divisiveness in the American polity that one cannot foresee any administration taking the initiative to update the obscure and obsolete electoral system in one of the most vibrant democracies in the world

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The hurry with which Donald Trump, the US President-elect, has gone about making key appointments in his administration would suggest as if his swearing-in had been advanced. It is not. Even Trump cannot rid the US system of this oddity, among quite a few others, when the winner of a hotly-contested poll on November 4th has to wait till January 20th to be sworn in.

Consider that in the UK, the mother of democracies, the newly-elected prime minister leaves 10 Downing Street by the backdoor while his successor walks in from the front within hours of the results being declared. In fact, Trump's election can only be officially ratified by the electoral college on January 6th. The electoral calendar was devised by the founding fathers long before the advent of modern means of transportation. They had to make provision of time for a president-elect, say, from Texas to reach Washington DC, a distance of some 1500-odd miles. It made sense then because the fastest means of travel was horse-back.