Photographs of enthusiastic voters at polling booths were statements of public endorsement for a peaceful and democratic transfer of power in Afghanistan. People voted against the violence and gun culture.
Photographs of enthusiastic voters at polling booths were statements of public endorsement for a peaceful and democratic transfer of power in Afghanistan. People voted against the violence and gun culture.The Independent Election Commission (IEC) estimates at least 7 million voters – 36 percent of them women – got a chance to cast their vote.
Abdul Latif Nazari, a lecturer at a private university, observes, “The people through their participation in the runoff elections showed they want a government that is elected, and not hereditary or despotic.”
Nazari points out that candidates Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani travelled to the provinces to campaign among voters, and heard their complaints and hopes of the election.
The desire for transparency was widespread among the electorate. The Afghan National Security Council urged the Electoral Complaint Commission to look into thousands of complaints from candidates and voters about irregularities and fraud. The run-off election on June 16 was marked by low-levels of violence, which included attacks by Taleban and shelling from across the border in Pakistan.
Jan Kubis, head of UNAMA (UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan) congratulated the Afghan people for their courage and determination to vote despite threats of violence from the Taleban and other armed opponents of the government. Praise for the Afghan election process came from outside like US Secretary of State John Kerry and British Foreign Secretary William Hague. Iran’s first foreign ministry spokeswoman, Marzieh Afkham, praised the successful holding of the elections, and promised to support the winning candidate as president. Hua Chunying, spokesperson of the Chinese foreign ministry, said Beijing was for the stability of Afghanistan.
Transparent counting
For the IEC the successful holding of the election – the second in two months – has been a triumph. Now all eyes are on a transparent process of dealing with complaints of rigging and the counting of votes.
Already supporters of the two candidates in the runoff have said their candidate would lose only if there was fraud. The challenge now before the IEC is to ensure the result of the election is acceptable to all.
The first signs of trouble appeared less than 48 hours after polling when the campaign team of Abdullah Abdullah claimed there was widespread ballot stuffing and suggested the fraud was being administered by outgoing President Hamid Karzai either to favour Ashraf Ghani or use the crisis to extend his term as president. The president’s spokesperson rejected the allegations from the Abdullah camp.
The accusations of fraud levelled by Abdullah’s supporters echoes the bitterly-fought 2009 election when despite the revelation that more than 1 million votes were tampered with, most of them in favour of Karzai, Abdullah had to concede victory to the president under pressure from some of his own political allies and US officials.
That crisis was defused but it may be difficult to orchestrate a second pullback from confrontation. Abdullah has demanded the dismissal of Ziaul Haq Amarkhil, the chief electoral officer. The IEC chief meanwhile has requesting re-elections in some provinces.
Rabiullah, a resident of the Afghan capital, hopes the two rival candidates will see the public’s desire for a smooth transfer of power. He thinks by ensuring the counting process is fair the IEC can make sure no doubts persist about the outcome of the election.
“We request the IEC and complaints commission to ensure transparency through the use of available legal tools and convince the loser to accept the verdict, and extend cooperation to the winning candidate and not play spoilsport, which would be disastrous for the public,” he says.
