Washington: The US Congress officially declared Barack Obama as the next President of the United States on Thursday in a ceremonial and constitutionally-required state-by-state tally of the Electoral College votes.
Democrats and Republicans responded with a standing ovation as Vice-President Dick Cheney announced that Obama had won the majority of the votes.
"The state of the vote of President of United States as delivered to the President of the Senate is as follows: the whole number of electors appointed to vote for president of the United States is 538, of which a majority is 270. Barack Obama of the state of Illinois has received for President of the United States 365 votes," Cheney said as Speaker of House, Nancy Pelosi stood by his side.
The US Electoral College met on Monday to officially elect Obama as the next President of the United States.
In US elections, the winner of the popular vote — Obama in this case with nearly 67 million votes — does not necessarily win the presidency.
That decision falls to the 538 members of the Electoral College, party faithful allotted to each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on their representation in the US Congress or population.
In most cases, the winner of the state's popular vote gets all of the state's electoral votes, which range from three for the least populated to 55 for California. Nebraska and Maine have a proportional system of awarding electors.
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