WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday alleged a vote in which Virginia backed a new electoral map that could favor Democrats was `rigged` echoing his false claims over the 2020 election.

`A RIGGED ELECTION TOOK PLACE LAST NIGHT,` Trump said on social media. `All day long Republicans were winning, the Spirit was unbelievable, until the very end when, of course, there was a massive `Mail In Ballot Drop!`` The state voted in a referendum Tuesday to allow the redrawing of the congressional map, giving Democrats a strong advantage in 10 of the state`s 11 House districts, up from their previous 6-5 edge.

The temporary map is the latest instance of `gerrymandering,` the long-established but widely criticized US practice of drawing electoral boundaries to benefit one party.

Gerrymandering has become a defining element in November`s midterm elections, in which all US House Representatives and one-third of Senators are on the ballot.

Redistricting usually follows theUS national census every 10 years, but Trump last year urged Republican-led states to redraw maps mid-decade to protect the party`s fragile House of Representatives majority.

Texas moved first, adopting a map that could add up to five Republican seats. California answered with a ballot measure designed to give Democrats five more of their own.

Democrats argued that the Virginia map was a necessary counterweight to Trump`s pressure campaign, while Republicans denounced it as a power grab in a state where Trump took 46 percentofthe votein2024.

`Six to five goes to ten to one, and yet the Presidential Election in November was very close to a 50-50 split,` Trump said on Wednesday.

The 79-year-old Republican also criticized the Virginia election as confusing, writing: `In addition to everything else, the language on the Referendum was purposefully unintelligible and deceptive.` Trump heavily pushed the Texas redistricting effort, which was jammed through by the state legislature without a referendum.-AFP