United States President Donald Trump on Thursday called for delaying the 2020 presidential election, citing possible mail-in voting fraud.

This is the first time Trump has floated a “delay” to November’s presidential election as he made unsubstantiated allegations that increased mail-in voting will result in fraud.

“With Universal Mail-In Voting (not absentee voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA,” Trump said in a tweet.

“It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???” he said.

For months, several state governments in the US have been contemplating mail-in voting due to public health concerns that in-person voting may lead to an increase in infection cases.

Trump would be obligated by law to leave office on January 20, 2021, unless he is re-elected. There are no exceptions to this rule.

The first indication of the possibility of a postponed election arose in March this year when the state of Ohio delayed the state primary elections, with the state’s Director of Health Amy Acton using Covid-19 as justification for postponing the elections.