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AFGHANISTAN-ELECTION
Afghan chief executive wants halt to election recount
KABUL, Nov 10, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Abdullah
Abdullah called Sunday for a halt to a recount of the recent presidential
election, saying he would not accept “fraud-marked” results.
The move adds a fresh layer of uncertainty following the September 28
poll, which already has been marred by record-low turnout and continued
bickering between Abdullah and his rival, President Ashraf Ghani.
“The recounting should be stopped. We are trying to save the process
from fraudsters,” Abdullah said at a rally of his supporters in Kabul.
“A fraud-marred election will not be accepted. The result should be
based on the clean votes of our people,” he added.
Abdullah, who unsuccessfully ran in the previous two presidential
elections and is fighting for his political future, has repeatedly raised
questions about the validity of hundreds of thousands of votes.
The election was meant to be the cleanest yet in Afghanistan’s young
democracy, with a German firm supplying biometric machines that were supposed
to stop people from voting more than once.
But nearly a million of the initial votes were purged owing to
irregularities, meaning the election saw by far the lowest turnout of any
Afghan poll, with only about 1.8 million votes from a total of 9.6 million
registered voters in a population of around 37 million people.
Abdullah has said problems remain with about 300,000 of these high-tech
votes, claiming various issues including that photos attached to some ballots
had been taken from fake identity cards, and not actual voters.
He said his observers would be boycotting the recount, a move that will
only fuel further claims of problems with the electoral process.
The ongoing uncertainty raises the possibility Afghanistan is headed for
a repeat of the crisis that followed the last presidential election in 2014.
Then, Ghani and Abdullah fought a close and angry race that sparked
widespread allegations of fraud and saw the US step in to broker an awkward
power-sharing agreement between the rivals under a unity government.
Initial results from the September poll were supposed to be released on
October 19, but the announcement has already been delayed twice — with
election officials citing various technical problems.
A new date has been set for Thursday, but officials have hinted the
announcement may be pushed back yet again.
Abdullah, who has previously said he believes he secured the most votes,
last week told AFP he would “absolutely” respect the result of recent polls –
– if the process is fair and transparent.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1510 hrs