Afghanistan’s presidential election is set for a second-round vote, preliminary results showed on Saturday, as former Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah and ex-World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani each failed to secure a decisive victory.
The election will choose a successor to outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the country’s first democratic transfer of power.
Whoever wins will have to oversee the fight against a resilient Taliban insurgency as 51,000 US-led troops are to depart this year, as well as strengthen an economy that relies on declining aid money.
Photo: AFP
“Based on our results, it appears that the election goes to the second round,” Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani, head of the Independent Election Commission, told a press conference in Kabul on Saturday.
Abdullah secured 44.9 percent of the April 5 vote, with his main rival Ghani taking 31.5 percent, the preliminary results showed.
The 2009 election when Karzai retained power was marred by fraud in a chaotic process that shook confidence in the multinational effort to develop the country and also marked a sharp decline in relations with the US.
The final official result is set to be announced on May 14 after a period for adjudication of hundreds of complaints over alleged fraud.
As no candidate gained more than 50 percent, a runoff between the two leading names is required under the Afghan constitution.
Eight men ran in the election, with polling day hailed as a success by Afghan officials and foreign allies because the Taliban failed to launch a major attack despite threats to disrupt the vote.
“The election went pretty well, we are satisfied with it and I think we are prepared if it goes to the second round,” Nuristani said.
Another expensive, and potentially violent, election could be avoided by negotiations between the candidates in the coming weeks, but Abdullah has dismissed talks of a possible power-sharing deal.
Ghani has also vowed to fight on in the runoff, which is tentatively scheduled for June 7.
Serious fraud allegations are being investigated and Saturday’s announcement is expected to be followed by fierce debate over disputed voting papers, ballot-box stuffing and other allegations.
Yesterday, Abdullah urged the IEC to be “more transparent,” wanting to know which ballot boxes have been declared invalid and on what ground, while accusing officials of meddling in the vote.
Preliminary results were delayed by two days due to fraud investigations, with officials vowing to sift out all suspect votes.
The UN mission in Afghanistan welcomed the results, but said election officials must address all complaints “in a professional, expeditious and open manner” to safeguard the election process.
Karzai, who has ruled since the Islamist Taliban regime was ousted in 2001, is constitutionally barred from serving a third term.
He pledged to stay neutral in the election, but was widely thought to have lent support to his loyal former Afghan foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul, who took just 11 percent of the vote.
Abdullah, a pro-US politician who came second in 2009, was a close adviser to the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, a revered Tajik ethnic leader who fought the Taliban during their 1996 to 2001 rule.
Ghani is a renowned intellectual who energized the campaign with his fiery speeches and is more favored by the larger Pashtun ethnic group.
The leading candidates have pledged to explore peace talks with the Taliban and sign a deal with the US that could allow 10,000 US troops to stay on after this year on a training and counterterrorism mission.
Nuristani said nearly 7 million people voted in the April 5 election out of an estimated electorate of 13.5 million — well above the 2009 turnout.
Of those who voted, 36 percent were women — a figure likely to be seen as a sign of some improvement in women’s status in the deeply conservative Muslim country.
RALLYING CRY: Former US president Donald Trump has raised suspicions about why Chinese migrants are going to the US and advocacy groups worry about his rhetoric The US Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday said that it sent 116 Chinese migrants from the US back home in the first “large charter flight” in five years. The flight, which happened over the weekend, comes as Chinese immigration has become the subject of intense political debate in the upcoming US presidential election. “We will continue to enforce our immigration laws and remove individuals without a legal basis to remain in the United States,” US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement. The department said it was working with China to “reduce and deter irregular migration and to disrupt
SOUTH CHINA SEA DISPUTE: The Philippines prefers to handle operations on its own, and would exhaust all possible options before asking for help, the military chief said The Philippines has turned down offers from the US to assist operations in the South China Sea, after a flare-up with China over missions to resupply Filipino troops on a contested shoal, its military chief said. Tensions in the disputed waterway have boiled over into violence in the past year, with a Filipino sailor losing a finger in the latest June 17 clash that Manila described as “intentional high-speed ramming” by the Chinese coast guard. The US, a treaty ally, has offered support, but Manila prefers to handle operations on its own, Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief General Romeo Brawner told
ELECTION JITTERS: After a call with the party’s leadership, a DNC member said they were being asked to ignore the party’s dire predicament after last week’s debate US President Joe Biden on Saturday attended a triple-header of campaign fundraisers, seeking to reassure high-dollar donors he can still win re-election in November despite a debate performance that sparked panic among many Democrats. Accompanying him at the fundraisers in New York and New Jersey was first lady Jill Biden, who has fiercely defended her 81-year-old husband amid calls for him to step aside. “Joe isn’t just the right person for the job — he’s the only person for the job,” she told one gathering, which featured actors Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick among the cohosts. The president is facing a wave
NO CASUALTIES REPORTED: The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for targeting Israeli communities near the Gaza border with what Israel said was about 20 projectiles Israeli forces yesterday carried out deadly strikes on southern Gaza and battled militants after the army again ordered Palestinians to leave areas near the besieged territory’s border with Israel and Egypt. Witnesses reported intense bombing and shelling around Khan Yunis, southern Gaza’s main city from which Israeli forces withdrew in early April after a devastating months-long battle. A hospital source in the city said shelling killed eight people and wounded more than 30 others. The bombardment came after a rocket barrage on Monday targeting southern Israel claimed by the militant group Islamic Jihad, which has fought alongside Hamas. The rockets