Afghanistan Times
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AT Monitoring Desk
KABUL: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has applauded the courage of Afghan voters, poll workers and security forces for making the presidential election possible.
In a tweet, Pompeo stressed the need for transparency in upcoming stages and investigation into complaints.
“We applaud the courage of Afghan voters, poll workers, and security forces who made Afghan elections possible despite technical challenges and security threats.”
“Afghanistan’s institutions must take all necessary steps to transparently tabulate results and investigate complaints,” the secretary of state wrote
The Independent Election Commission (IEC) says preliminary results of Saturday’s vote would be announced on October 19.
This comes as Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the leader of “Stability and Convergence” and the first running mate of the State-Builder team lead by President Ashraf Ghani have claimed victory in presidential election held on 28th September. The both teams claimed of obtaining more votes.
Addressing a press conference, Abdullah said; “based on our assessments, we received more votes and the election won’t go to the second round and we will form the new government.”
The claim comes when official counting is still ongoing, and the Independent Election Commission called on candidates to restrain from calling victory. Days ago, Ghani’s running mate, Amrullah Saleh said that Ghani had won a clear first-ballot victory, without offering evidence.
