Afghanistan Times
Related Articles
AT News Report
KABUL: Some political analysts warn that a new electoral crisis would happen, a statement after two allegedly frontrunners in the presidential election (Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah) claimed victory.
Abdullah on Monday told reporters that he was the winner of
the fourth election, an allegation that encouraged his rival team to have
similar claims.
The two teams’ predictions on the electoral results are premature and illegal
as, according to the independent election commission, who is the only
authorized body to announce the results.
Such claims would be the beginning of an electoral crisis that people experienced in the 2014 polls.
Dr. Jaafar Mahdavi, political analyst and former lawmaker, said Tuesday that an electoral crisis would take place if the international community would not intervene and presidential hopefuls would not adopt a joint stance.
The previous presidential election went to an impasse after Abdullah didn’t accept the results of second round poll, threatening to form a parallel government. The deadlock was resolved when the US then secretary of state, John Kerry meddled and formed a unity government consisting of both Ghani and Abdullah as president and chief executive respectively.
Mahdavi said that the premature victory claims by the
frontrunners would only confuse people and disorder the process.
He rejected the claims as “clumsily and baseless”, saying that their statements
would pave the ground for a crisis.
Though some people believe that the United States is not interested this time
in Afghan election, but Mahdavi emphasized that Washington would intervene if a
crisis takes place.
He said that this time, the US interference would be
different from the previous one, adding that Washington would likely support
the election commission’s decision, not candidates.
Meanwhile, Yousuf Rashid, head of the Free and Fair Election Forum of
Afghanistan (FEFA), thinks that candidates would obey electoral commission’s
decision.
He said that the biometrics system would help the fraud prevention and would
strengthen commission’s stance and would be supported by people.
The fourth presidential election was held on Saturday, but turnout was low.
However, the election commissions, monitors and candidates called the election
transparent.
