KABUL , December 22: Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani was on track to win a second term Sunday, after election officials announced he had scored a majority in the presidential polls.
But despite Ghani’s apparent clean win, the fallout from the bitterly contested September 28 election looked set to continue, with top rival Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah saying he would contest the result.
According to the Independent Election Commission, Ghani won 50.64 percent of the vote in the September 28 poll, easily besting Abdullah, who scored 39.52 percent. Candidates now have the right to file any complaints they may have before final results are announced, probably within a few weeks.
As soon as the result was announced, Abdullah’s office said in a statement he would contest it.
“We would like to make it clear once again to our people, supporters, election commission and our international allies that our team will not accept the result of this fraudulent vote unless our legitimate demands are addressed,” the statement read.
Preliminary results were originally due October 19 but were repeatedly delayed amid technical issues and allegations of fraud from various candidates, particularly Abdullah.
“We, with honesty, loyalty, responsibility and faithfulness completed our duty,” IEC chairwoman Hawa Alam Nuristani said.
“We respected every single vote because we wanted democracy to endure.”
The protracted limbo between the vote and the preliminary result heaped additional uncertainty on Afghans who already are anxiously awaiting the outcome of talks between the US and the Taliban.
The election was meant to be the cleanest yet in Afghanistan’s young democracy, with a German firm supplying biometric machines to stop people from voting more than once.-Agencies
Earlier, Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has led the preliminary results of September presidential election by 50.64 percent, Afghan Independent Election Commission (IEC) announced on Sunday.
Announcing the long-awaited results, Chairperson of IEC Hawa Alam Nuristani told reporters that Ghani was followed by presidential hopeful and government’s Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah who secured 39.52 percent of the votes.
The results for the 28 September presidential polls, originally scheduled to be announced on October 19, have been repeatedly delayed with IEC officials citing technical issues, allegations of fraud and protests from candidates.
According to IEC, Ashraf Ghani earned 923,868 votes and 50.64%, to lead the preliminary results of the 2019 presidential election. Abdullah Abdullah followed with 720,990 votes and 39.52%, the IEC announced.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of Hizb-e-Islami of Afghanistan, has bagged 3.85 percent of the votes. The remaining 11 candidates had far fewer votes, with the fourth place candidate winning less than 2 percent. – NNI
