Fox and NBC television networks called the result in the US House of Representatives, while confirming expectations that Trump’s Republicans will retain control of the Senate.

The result upends the balance of power in Washington, where Trump has enjoyed an easy ride from Republican dominance of both houses of Congress since his shock election in 2016.

Democrats will now be able to block legislation and light a fire under Trump’s feet with investigations of his opaque finances and Russian interference in his 2016 election, and possibly push for impeachment.

The verdicts in the House and Senate were based on incomplete results as vote counting continued across the country and some states were still voting in a congressional election cast as an unofficial referendum on Trump.

Giddy predictions by Democrats of a so-called “blue wave” landslide in the House were still premature, even if a majority appeared guaranteed.

Trump was watching the results roll in from the White House, where he spent the day holed up with friends and family.

Democrats confident

Americans voted enthusiastically, with long lines quickly forming at polling stations from New York to California and from Missouri to Georgia.

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 35 seats in the 100-member Senate and 36 governorships were up for grabs.

Democrats quickly made important gains in the House, but Republicans defended in crucial races, like incumbent Andy Barr of Kentucky, whose House seat had seemed at risk.

In the Senate, Republican Mike Braun snatched the seat from Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly, but corruption scandal-tainted Senator Bob Menendez saved his seat for the Democrats in New Jersey.

Pollsters, gun shy after getting their 2016 presidential prediction wrong, urged caution.

Trump had fought hard before polling day, crisscrossing the country to claim that Democrats would introduce socialism and making incendiary attacks on illegal immigration that opponents denounced as racist.

Even so, Democrats were highly confident, with Nancy Pelosi, the party’s top leader in the House, saying “it’s just a question of the size of the victory.”

Former vice president Joe Biden, often touted as a possible Democratic candidate to take on Trump in 2020, said he’d have been “dumbfounded” not to win the House.

Results were to continue trickling in through the night, with the last polls closing in Alaska at 0600 GMT Wednesday.

Buzz on the streets

According to Michael McDonald of the US Elections Project, 38.4 million Americans cast their ballots early ahead of this election, compared with 27.4 million in the 2014 midterm.

And on the streets there was a palpable buzz all day.

“We have already seen huge turnout, people out and about knocking on doors, making sure everybody gets out there, but I think turnout will be very, very high,” Democratic candidate Katie Porter, who is running in Irvine, California, against two-term Republican incumbent Mimi Walters, told AFP.

On the other side of the country, in Atlanta, Georgia, voters waited in line for nearly two hours to cast ballots, according to local media reports.

Trump himself noted the energy as he wrapped up a punishing schedule of rallies around the country that were intended to boost Republican candidates — and his own brand heading towards reelection in 2020.

“The midterm elections used to be, like, boring,” Trump told a crowd in Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday. “Now it’s like the hottest thing.”

Jobs and fear

Voting in Chicago, James Gerlock, 27, a Republican, said he wanted to see more of the soaring economic growth that Trump says is the fruit of his business-friendly policies.

“I am extremely happy with the economy,” Gerlock said. “I just want to keep everything moving, because I’m loving it.”

But Democrats have been fired up by anger at Trump’s extraordinary attacks over the last few weeks against immigrants, claiming that his opponents seek to throw open the borders to “drug dealers, predators and bloodthirsty MS-13 killers.”

Trump has sent soldiers to the Mexican border, threatened to have illegal immigrants shot if they throw stones, and vowed to restrict citizenship rights.

Beto O’Rourke, a charismatic Democrat who lost in a closely watched bid to dethrone Republican Senator Ted Cruz in Texas, told voters that Trump was wrong, describing his state as built from “immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees.”

Will Byler and Bailee Ackerman, both 23 and final-year students at the Sam Houston State University, had married at Byler’s family ranch.

As they were transported from the venue later that night, their helicopter malfunctioned and crashed into a nearby hill, about 1.6km from the ranch, according to local media outlets.

Eric Smith, a friend of the couple, posted about their deaths on Facebook on Sunday night.

“Sadly they crashed into the side of a hill about a mile from the family ranch. The pilot, Jerry, was also on board. There were no survivors! Please keep everyone associated with this tragic event in your prayers.”

The location of the crash was near Uvalde, about 135km west of San Antonio.

The university’s student newspaper, the Houstonian, first reported on the tragedy on Sunday.

The report said that Byler was studying agricultural engineering and belonged to the school’s rodeo team, while Ackerman was studying agricultural communication.

The helicopter pilot has since been identified as 76-year-old Gerald Lawrence.

Lawrence’s wife told Britain’s Daily Mail on Monday that he was a private commercial pilot who worked for the groom’s father’s helicopter business.

Tributes have poured in for the couple since Saturday’s cruel twist of events.

Ackerman’s maid-of-honour Jessica Stilley paid tribute to her best friend on Instagram: “I’m so sad to even be captioning these pictures with this, but you know I just have to share with everyone how beautiful you looked on your wedding day like I normally would have.”

She added: “I’m so happy you married the man of your dreams and found the precious love you deserved with him.”

Her Instagram profile has since been taken private.

Another friend of the couple, Caroline Flippin, said on Instagram that their wedding night was “magical in every way” and “absolutely perfect”.

She said: “I have peace in the fact that you left this earth so full of happiness and love… Our hearts hurt now, but we know this is not forever.”

America’s National Transportation Safety Board confirmed on Twitter that it was investigating the crash, which it said involved a Bell 206B helicopter.

The Rohingya issue was discussed by a panel of the Asean People Forum and Asean Civil Society Conference (APF/ACSC) this week prior to the Asean Summit in Singapore. Usually, representatives of the people’s forum meet and submit their inputs to the group when the leaders meet, but it was unclear whether they could meet the leaders during the summit next week.

Edmund Bon Tai Soon, Malaysian representative from the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), said the challenge was how to make the leaders of Asean more active on the issue.

More than 700,000 refugees have fled violence in Rakhine state since August last year when militants attacked Myanmar security outposts, prompting a clearance operation enforced by the military.

The international community, notably the United Nations, regarded the atrocities that included arson, gang rape and massacre, as genocide and wanted to refer the case to International Criminal Court or a kind of ad hoc tribunal.

Asean limited its engagement to humanitarian issues, refrained from addressing its root cause while maintaining a silence on allegations of crimes against humanity.

There have been attempts by individual AICHR members from Indonesia and Malaysia to tackle the issue seriously but their recommendations were stalled by Myanmar, said Edmund. However, Asean’s soft, humanitarian approach, offering mobile medical service, education and infrastructure support was fine, he said.

As for Civil Society, Edmund recommended that they could work their way to give Asean models on how to respond to the needs should a special task force on the Rohingya issue be established.

Another social activist, who did not want to be named, said the root cause was the long hatred for the Rohingya, which was later reinforced by the discriminating 1982 citizenship law that denied them Myanmar citizenship.

The Myanmar people justified the Tatmadaw (Myanmar military)’s clearance operation as a response to the violence on August 25, 2017 by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), an armed Muslim group.

They said it was a reasonable self-defence measure against global level threats from Muslim extremists, she said.

‘Sanctions hurt common man’

The first step to address the problem is to rehumanise the Rohingya by using the mutual suffering which other ethnic minorities are also facing and later create a wider understanding about the long-time discrimination, she said.

Economic sanctions imposed by the European Union might not work to solve the problem but would only make ordinary people lose their jobs, she said, suggesting that the EU should take action against the perpetrators who had created the discriminating system and benefited from the violence.

Also, she reminded that there were still 500,000 Rohingya in Myanmar along with other Muslims struggling with discrimination and living in fear.

The important thing is to create a condition where they can live safely in Myanmar and recognise themselves as part of the nation.

Antara reporter Boyke Ledy Watra, who happened to be on the plane, reported that several passengers argued, occasionally almost coming to blows, with flight crew members before deciding to leave the aircraft.

Sriwijaya Air eventually decided to unload sacks of durian from the baggage compartment and the flight eventually departed around 11.40 a.m., an hour later than the scheduled takeoff.

Sriwijaya Air senior corporate communications manager Retri Maya released a statement in response to the reports, justifying the airline’s decision to carry the durian despite its decision to eventually unload the strongly smelling but popular fruit.

“It’s not illegal to carry durian in a flight as long as it is wrapped properly in accordance with flight regulations—carried inside the hold. Many airlines do this,” she said in a statement on Tuesday.

Here is a look at some of the most interesting contests:

– Beto-mania –

One of the most expensive and closely watched Senate races is in Texas, where incumbent Republican Senator Ted Cruz is facing Democratic Representative Beto O’Rourke.

    O’Rourke, 46, whose given names are Robert Francis but who goes by Beto, is mounting a surprisingly strong challenge to the 47-year-old Cruz in the reliably Republican “Lone Star State.”

O’Rourke, a three-term congressman and former member of a punk band, is drawing enthusiastic support from many urban dwellers in Texas, while Cruz does better in conservative rural areas.

Plucking the Senate seat from Cruz, who battled Donald Trump for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, would be a major victory for the Democratic Party.

​​​​​​​– Dueling female candidates –

Arizona will have a woman representing the southwestern state in the US Senate for the first time as two women battle for the seat being vacated by Jeff Flake, a Trump critic who is not running for reelection.

The Republican flag-bearer is Martha McSally, a 52-year-old former US Air Force fighter pilot and two-term member of the House of Representatives.

McSally’s Democratic opponent is Kyrsten Sinema, 42, a three-term member of the House of Representatives who spent several years of her childhood in poverty after her parents divorced.

McSally and Sinema are running neck-in-neck in a state which President Donald Trump won by 3.5 percentage points in the 2016 presidential election.

– Democrats in danger –

Democratic Senate candidates are in danger of losing their seats in Missouri, North Dakota and Indiana.

In Missouri — which Trump won by 18 points in 2016 — Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill, 65, is facing a strong challenge from Republican state attorney general Josh Hawley.

Trump has campaigned personally for the 38-year-old Hawley and called him a rising star in the party.

In North Dakota — which Trump won by 36 points in 2016 — Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp, 63, is fighting for her political survival against Republican Kevin Cramer.

Cramer, 57, who has served three terms in the House of Representatives, currently leads in the polls.

In Indiana, Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly, 63, has a small lead over his Republican challenger Mike Braun, a 64-year-old businessman, in a state which Trump won by 19 points in 2016.

Bob Menendez, 64, a Democrat from New Jersey who has served in the Senate since 2006, could also be in trouble after facing corruption charges.

The case ended up with a hung jury and a mistrial and the charges were dropped. Menendez is being challenged by Republican businessman Bob Hugin, 64.

– Close eye on Florida –

Two of the most-watched races in the country are in Florida.

Democrat Bill Nelson, 76, was first elected to the Senate in 2000 and was easily reelected in 2006 and 2012.

But Nelson, who served as a payload specialist on a Space Shuttle in 1986, is facing a tough challenge this time from Florida’s Republican Governor Rick Scott.

Gun control is a big issue in the race following the February shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, which left 17 people dead.

Another close race in Florida is for governor to replace the 65-year-old Scott.

Democrat Andrew Gillum, 39, the African American mayor of Tallahassee, is locked in an acrimonious battle with Ron DeSantis, 40, a member of the House of Representatives and ardent Trump supporter.

Trump has personally campaigned for DeSantis and has had harsh words for Gillum, considered by some to be a potential future star of the Democratic Party.

​​​​​​– First black female governor –

In Georgia, Stacey Abrams, 44, the former minority leader of the state House of Representatives, is running for governor against Republican Brian Kemp, the 55-year-old Georgia secretary of state.

Abrams, who has received the support of Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities, would be the first black woman to become governor of a US state if she wins.

The race has seen allegations that Kemp has attempted to prevent tens of thousands of mainly black voters from taking part in the election.