AKIPRESS.COM - Chaos in the Iowa Democratic caucuses, where contest results are delayed by technical glitches, was seized upon by Donald Trump as he notched a victory, BBC reports.

The outcome of the first stage in the Democrat race to pick a candidate for November's presidential election was left unsettled on Tuesday morning.

Democratic officials blamed a "coding error" in the app used to report results.

Mr Trump easily won the Republican contest.

The debacle on the Democrat side, on the other hand, was "an unmitigated disaster," the president tweeted. "The only person that can claim a very big victory in Iowa last night is 'Trump'".

Votes in the Democratic contest will be tabulated by hand and the "majority" of the results would be reported by 16:00 local time (22:00 GMT) in Iowa on Tuesday, officials said.

However, the indeterminate result on the night has created scepticism of the caucus process and reignited questions over whether Iowa - a rural, white state not representative of the US electorate as a whole - should continue to be the place to hold the first primary contest.

Mr Trump dismissed the suggestion. "As long as I am President, Iowa will stay where it is. Important tradition!" he tweeted.

Democrats hoping to take him on in this year's election have set their sights forward.

Many have already landed in New Hampshire, where the next primary contest is due to be held on Tuesday, 11 February.

On Monday, voters flocked to more than 1,600 schools, libraries and churches in Iowa to have their say in who should be on the ballot in the November presidential election.

Mr Trump easily won the Republican contest with 97% of the vote, but a winner was not declared in the Democratic race.

Despite the absence of results, several candidates claimed victory.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders spoke of winning in Iowa's caucuses, citing internal campaign data that placed him ahead of Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

Earlier, Mr Buttigieg told supporters that "by all indications" his campaign was "going to New Hampshire victorious".