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Even the Covid-19 pandemic has not been able to overcome the deep divisions the presidential election has revealed in United States society, an Otago academic says.

• Global Insight: Election shows US still deeply divided 

University of Otago foreign affairs specialist Prof Robert Patman said it was ‘‘curious’’ voters had not held President Donald Trump’s Administration more accountable for its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 230,000 US citizens.

‘‘When you consider that more Americans have died from Covid-19 in eight months than all the battlefield casualties . . . in the post-1945 period... it has hardly been the emphatic win the Democrats might have hoped for,’’ Prof Patman told Global Insight, the ODT’s fortnightly foreign affairs video show.

The close and fraught election to decide whether Republican candidate Mr Trump or Democrat candidate Joe Biden would be 46th president of the US - with both sides now heading for the courts - showed the United States was ‘‘very deeply divided’’, Prof Patman said.

Mr Trump has won more votes than in 2016, but Mr Biden has received an even larger number, giving him a2% lead in the popular vote.

‘‘I think the polarisation of America . . . has becomeeven more stark because there are less third party challenges who are credible in this election.’’

Prof Patman said Mr Trump’s calls for vote counting to be stopped was of ‘‘dubious legality’’.

Mr Biden, if confirmed as president, would have a Democrat-majority House of Representatives but would likely face a Republican majority Senate.

This would not be an insurmountable problem for Mr Biden, who had an effective bipartisan track record, Prof Patman said.

‘‘He’s used to working with people across the aisle.’’

New Zealand would not have an identical perspective to that of the US, no matter who was president. But the Jacinda Ardern-led Labour Government would find it much easier to work with a Biden administration, Prof Patman said.

Mr Biden had indicated he would use existing frameworks to handle international disputes.

‘‘When challenged about how he would handle relations with China, [Mr Biden] said he would hold them to account according to international rules.Which, of course, New Zealand is a great believer in .. . because we are not big enough to make our own rules and . . . need a rules-based system so we can go about our business in a way that is fair and equitable.’’

Mr Biden had also said he would lead an energy ‘‘paradigm shift’’ to avoid irreversible consequences of climate change.

‘‘Biden said we do not have any alternative but to energetically embrace the change.

‘‘On that basis . . . there’s a much stronger basis for cooperation.’’

bruce.munro@odt.co.nz