Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she will work with whoever wins the presidential election in the US, holding off on making a call on whether that would be Democrat Joe Biden or Republican Donald Trump.
“As votes are still being counted, I think the whole world waits for the final outcome in the United States,” Ardern said this afternoon.
“We continue to have faith in those institutions, as I’m sure they do.”
She added: “My job in this role as Prime Minister is to work with whomever another country decides should be their leader.”
It comes as the results in a number of states following yesterday's election are still being counted, with neither Trump nor Biden reaching the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the presidency.
Click here for live updates as results of the US election come in
Trump yesterday prematurely declared: "This is a fraud to the American public, this is an embarrassment on our country, we were getting ready to win this election, frankly we did win this election.”
Associated Press also reported Trump's campaign and the Georgia Republican Party have filed a lawsuit against the Chatham County Board of Elections asking a judge to order the county to secure and account for ballots received after 7pm on Election Day.
State party chair David Shafer said in a statement today that they planned to sue in a dozen counties.
Meanwhile, Biden said he was “on track to win”.
“It’s going to take a while, we’re going to have to be patient until the hard work of tallying in votes is finished, and it ain’t over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted, but we’re feeling good, we’re feeling good about where we are,” Biden said.
Ardern was asked to comment on Trump’s characterisation of the US election as a “fraud”.
She said she continued to “have faith” in the institutions around the US elections, and had “faith that those final votes will continue to be counted and that there will be a final result declared”.
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