January 7 (PTI): A joint session of the US Congress on Thursday formally certified the electoral victory of Joe Biden as the next US president and Kamala Harris as the vice president in the November 3 election.
The formal certification by the joint session came in the wee hours of Thursday.
The joint session resumed its meeting late Wednesday night after it was disrupted by hundreds of supporters of incumbent President Donald Trump who violently stormed the Capitol Hill.
The counting of Electoral College votes and its subsequent certification came after an ugly episode of violence inside the US Capitol, resulting in four deaths, wherein Capitol Hill was brought under a lockdown, with lawmakers being taken to safe places, shots were fired inside the Congress and tear gas was used.
Former US president Barack Obama, described it as a moment of great dishonor and shame for the United States.
Biden, 78, and Harris, 56, are scheduled to be sworn in as the president and vice president of the country on January 20. The inauguration is going to be a low-key affair given the Covid-19 pandemic.
