Instructing the US intelligence agencies to determine if there are attempts afoot to influence the legislative elections, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a decree authorizing sanctions for countries that attempt to influence the November mid-term elections. Trump’s administration denounced possible attempts to do so from Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.
Attempts to influence the legislative elections were earlier made during the 2016 presidential vote.
The decree signed by the US president therefore, establishes a mechanism for imposing sanctions on detection if any interference with the future US election.
Trump in a statement said, “there has been no evidence of a foreign power altering the outcome or vote tabulation in any US election.”
"We're going to take strong action to secure our election systems and the process," he added.
The US president was earlier criticised for his conclusions of the intelligence agencies that Russia attempted to influence the 2016 presidential vote with the aim of helping him win.
National Security Adviser John Bolton however, denied that the criticism had influenced the president's decision to take measures to dissuade foreign powers from interfering in the races for both houses of Congress.
According to Trump’s executive order, a "national emergency" exists linked to possible foreign interference in the US elections. It also creates a legal basis for the future imposition of sanctions linked to that issue.
Under the decree signed by the US president, the intelligence services, within 45 days after any US election, will have to evaluate whether there were attempts by a foreign government or person acting as an agent of another government to interfere with the election.
The Departments of Justice and Homeland Security will then have another 45 days to decide whether or not to impose "automatic" sanctions and the heads of the State and Defense Departments will evaluate whether to levy even more severe punishments.
The sanctions would block US financial activities by those implicated in the election interference and those individuals would be prohibited from entering this country.
The Trump administration could also impose a variety of additional sanctions under certain conditions.
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