Pete Buttigieg slammed as #MayorCheat defends Iowa 'victory' speech - without any results in

Democratic party leaders attribute massive delay in caucus results to 'coding issue' in glitchy app

After declaring himself victorious despite the lack of published vote counts and chaotic fallout following last night's Iowa caucus, Pete Buttigieg​ was met with an avalanche of "#MayorCheat" accusations on social media while the 2020 Democratic primary candidates untangle the results following a reporting app's disastrous reporting errors.

Mr Buttigieg held a rally late Monday, telling the crowd that "an improbable hope became an undeniable reality". He said: "So we don't know all the results, but we know by the time it's all said and done: Iowa, you have shocked the nation. Because by all indications, we are going on to New Hampshire victorious."

The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana also has been widely accused of using his campaign to halt the release of anticipated poll results traditionally released the day before the caucus.

Mr Buttigieg's campaign reportedly forced the cancellation of survey results from the Des Moines Register, along with an hour-long special on the poll on CNN, after one respondent reported that Mr Buttigieg was not read from a list of candidates.

His declaration of victory inspired a #MayorCheat hashtag, invoking his Mayor Pete nickname, surrounded by rat emoji.

Iowa voting precincts reported widespread technical issues and delays as precinct chairs attempted to report results using an app, which the Democratic National Committee commissioned to record precinct results and report them to the party.

The Iowa Democratic Party announced that the app was properly recording the results, but it was reporting only partial data. "We have determined this was due to a coding issue in the reporting system", the party said in a statement. "The application's reporting issue did not impact the ability of precinct chairs to report data accurately."

Mr Buttigieg told CBS This Morning from New Hampshire, where he's campaigning ahead of that state's primary vote on 11 February, that his own campaign's reporting of caucus results "in over 1,200 districts" shows that "it was a phenomenal night for us".

"Looking at what happened last night, looking at all of the data that we've got, it was an extraordinary night and we are absolutely victorious coming into New Hampshire," he said.

His campaign reported a 28 per cent state delegate equivalent, three points more than results gathered by Bernie Sanders' campaign, which showed the Vermont senator earning a 28.6 per cent state delegate equivalent.

The app, reportedly designed by Democratic tech firm Shadow, headed by a former Hillary Clinton campaign staffer, was enlisted by the DNC late last year. It also is scheduled to record and report results in Nevada's Democratic caucus on 22 February.