Obama, Romney camps claim victory as US goes to polls

Washington, Nov 6: Notwithstanding the latest opinion polls suggesting a close fight between incumbent

and his rival

, both the Democrat and Republican camps have claimed victory ahead of the crucial presidential elections set for today.

Hours ahead of millions of Americans were to cast their vote in Tuesday's elections, both the Romney and Obama campaigns, in their speeches and conference calls with reporters, claimed that enthusiasm was on their side. The opinion polls, however, suggested a close contest. The latest Washington Post-ABC tracking poll released yesterday gave Obama (50 per cent) a three point lead over Romney (47 per cent), which is still within the margin of statistical error.

"The poll also finds that Obama remains the favourite, with 55 per cent of voters saying that he will win in Tuesday's election. By contrast, 35 per cent believe Romney will win while 10 per cent register no opinion," the daily said.

The polls are too close to call, the CNN said, so did other major news networks. The much sought after RealClearPolitics gave Obama an edge of 0.7 percentage point lead over Romney. While it has been a tie in the CNN poll, two other polls Rasmussen Reports and Gallup have one point edge to Romney over Obama. According to another survey by Monmouth/SurveyUSA/Braun, it is a tie between the two presidential candidates. But the two campaigns based on their own feedback from the ground claimed that they were headed for a win.

Karl Rove, the Republican strategist claimed that Romney would get 285 Electoral College votes (more than the 270 required to win the elections). The Sabato's Crystal Ball yesterday predicted that Obama would receive 290 Electoral College votes while Romney will be lagging behind with 248 votes.

PTI