In a press conference held in Kabul on Sunday, leading candidate Abdullah Abdullah said that he is victorious after the release of preliminary results. However, Abdullah did not comment about the possibility of a runoff, but stressed that he will make a remark about a second round after the announcement of final results.
During his press conference he criticized the election commissions and their lack of responsibility that paved the way for coordinated riggings.
“The people of Afghanistan should not have been deprived of their right to vote,” Abdullah said. “Why were a low number of ballots dispatched to some regions of Afghanistan? We want a clear answer.”
Abdullah said that the election commissions must publicly apologize to the people of Afghanistan for the discrepancies caused on Election Day.
At the same time, Abdullah criticized the government for meddling in the election process and declared that the invalidation of more than 100,000 votes in Herat was an organized deceitful plot.
“The centers that were invalidated and the 525 ballot boxes that were excluded from counting, we don’t understand why this happened,” he said. “The votes in Herat are an example where in less than two hours the provincial ECC office decides to invalidate more than 100,000 votes.”
According to Abdullah, if the complaints are investigated thoroughly and transparently, he is hopeful that the elections will not go to a second round.
“We are the winner of the elections, no doubt about it,” Abdullah said. “We are grateful to the people of Afghanistan and our trusted team.”
In response to the concerns of the presidential candidates, the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) spokesman, Nadir Mohseni, said that the ECC will soon address the concerns of the candidates.
“The ECC will share the details of all polling centers and sites that were quarantined and the complaints that were filed by candidates,” Mohseni said. “We will continue assessing these and once finished we will share the information with the candidates.”
In addition, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) Secretary, Zia-ul-haq Amarkhail, said that the election commissions have learned from the first round of elections and that these problems will not be repeated in the next round.
“We have learnt from this election and in the second round we will try not to repeat the same mistakes,” Amarkhail said.
There were some reports indicating a possible coalition between Abdullah, Abdul Rab Rassoul Sayyaf, Zalmai Rassoul and Gul Agha Sherzai. Abdullah rejected the claims and said that meetings have been held with the other candidates regarding the future of Afghanistan.
Source/Fuente: http://www.tolonews.com/elections2014/final-results-determine-runoff-abd...
