It’s all over for challenger Mitt Romney as he this morning lost his bid to unseat US President Barack Obama. But rather than the tight race predicted by some analysts, Democrat Obama put up a strong performance to eclipse his Republican rival, with a projected total of at least 275 electoral votes – five more than required for victory.

“Obama won a string of key states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Iowa and New Hampshire, meaning that the win was all but guaranteed, though the vote-counting was far from complete,” says an Aljazeera report.

After competing in his traditional Election Day basketball game, Obama had implored his supporters to vote in the final hours before polls closed in many states.

Early projections handed 23 states to Obama, including California, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.

Romney has taken 203 electoral votes from 23 states, including Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Indiana, South Carolina, Georgia, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and Alabama.

Some 120 million people rendered their judgment between the Democratic incumbent and Romney after a long and bitter presidential campaign that magnified the differences between Americans wanting to continue Obama’s approach to fixing the ailing economy and those who want to try a new path.

With the victory, Obama has been handed a fresh but final four-year mandate to rule over the world’s only surviving superpower.

*Photo, courtesy Aljazeera, shows Obama’s supporters in a jubilant mood following his re-election a few minutes ago.