US presidential race kicks off, Ted Cruz wins Iowa Republican caucuses

Feb 02, 2016 (LBO) – Texas Senator Ted Cruz has won the Iowa Republican caucuses defeating controversial figure Donald Trump in the United State’s first presidential contest.



Cruz has bagged 28 percent of the Republican vote beating Donald Trump and Marco Rubio. Votes in the Democratic race are still being counted showing a fierce battle between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.



The voting to select presidential candidates to run in November's US presidential race began in the state of Iowa yesterday.





Voters in the state of Iowa met across the state in schools, churches and other venues which described as caucuses to decide their delegates.

A series of presidential primary elections and caucuses are scheduled to take place between February and June 2016. The US presidential race is indeed lengthy, complex and costly exercise and citizens have no opportunity to select US President through a direct vote unlike in Sri Lanka. The nominating process is also an indirect election, where voters cast ballots for a slate of delegates to a political party's nominating convention, who then in turn elect their party's presidential nominee.



Voters will select presidential electors who in turn will elect a new president and vice president through the Electoral College.

The term limit established in the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution prevents the incumbent, President Barack Obama, from running for a third term.