Opponents of Afghan president dispute election result

LONG-DELAYED RESULTS: Election commission says result subject to review

KABUL: Rivals to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, including his main electoral opponent Abdullah Abdullah, have disputed long-delayed preliminary results from elections in September that gave Ghani an outright victory.

Immediately after the announcement that Ghani had won 50.64 per cent of the vote, Abdullah’s team released a statement saying it would not accept the preliminary figures unless 300,000 disputed votes are investigated.

Abdullah would not allow “a fraudulent group to govern over the destiny of the people,” the statement read.

Abdullah was favourite to go through to a run-off vote against Ghani, but unless the preliminary results are proved wrong, there will not need to be another round.

Spokespeople for candidates Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Rahmatullah Nabil as well as for the council of presidential candidates - a union of several of the lesser-known candidates - said Sunday that they would also not accept the result.

“We will use every means to stand against this decision,” said Hashmatullah Arshad, a spokesman for former warlord Hekmatyar, who finished third. Arshad mentioned demonstrations as a possible starting point to express their dissatisfaction.

In a statement, candidate Rahmatullah Nabil called on the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) to separate “the black and white” votes, referring to invalid and valid votes respectively. He warned that anything else could lead to a huge crisis and the collapse of the existing system.

The US ambassador to Afghanistan, John Bass, said on Twitter that it was important for all Afghans to remember that these results are preliminary and many steps remained before final election results are certified.

Abdullah won 39.5 per cent, Hekmatyar won 3.85 per cent, and Nabil secured 1.86 per cent, Independent Election Commission (Iec)chairwoman Hawa Alam Nuristani said earlier on Sunday.

Another nine candidates each received less than one per cent of the vote. The publication of the results from the September 28 poll had been repeatedly delayed over concerns of voter fraud and technical problems.

In the past weeks, there were continued heavy disputes over the validity of the 300,000 votes that Abdullah’s team want checked.

Formal complaints can now be submitted to the Electoral Complaints Commission, which said it would take more than 30 work days to deal with them.

The IEC did not announce a date when it plans to publish official final results.

Observers fear a disputed election result might trigger a new political crisis that could lead to more violence.

— Reuters Hawa Alam Nuristani, head of the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan, speaks during the announcement of preliminary presidential election results in Kabul.