U.S Elections at AUD
13/11/2016
The American consulate hosted a viewing gathering for the US elections of 2016 in American University of Dubai on the night of the vote, giving students and faculty a chance to follow the results as they had breakfast.
The event was hosted in the engineering lounge from 6am to 11am and several students and professors from different majors and nationalities poured in to track the results.
“It’s a great opportunity. These results will affect everyone around the world, especially us her in the Middle East, so it was very interesting to watch,” Phillipe Jardak, a Journalism student said.
“The food was great,” Tala Ramhamdani a Digital Production and Storytelling student said.
A catering service offered an array of breakfast foods. The organisers also hosted an unofficial voting poll and handed out brochures that detailed the process of the American elections, as well as pins that either represented the symbol of the democratic or republican party. Also, cardboard cutouts of the candidates stood on each side of the entrance where several attendees took pictures.
Three television sets broadcasted the news straight from American stations; CNN, Fox News and Sky News offered in Arabic. Also, a map of the states was coloured in either red or blue based on the winning candidate of the state.
The results during the election night were reminiscent of any other day. The controversial candidates went neck to neck, however Donald Trump took the lead. Nevertheless, there was a significant amount of third party voters in comparison to the previous elections.
Hilary Clinton’s spokesman gave a brief speech thanking the attendees at her headquarters and her voters after Trump was announced as the elections winner.
The final result brought on a mix of reactions from the event’s attendees. After Clinton’s spokesman’s speech, an organiser and consulate member laughed in wonderment then asked, “so I’ll see you guys tomorrow for breakfast?”
