Afghanistan Times
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By Mosa Ahmadzai
The Independent Elections Commission (IEC) postponed the result of the recent presidential elections for sometimes to ensure transparency and fairness in the elections. The elections result was expected to be announced on 19 October, the electoral Commission announced on Sunday that the preliminary result of the elections would be announced on November 14, after nearly one month of the prescheduled announcement.
The Afghan presidential elections were held on 28th Sep. 2019, amid threats by insurgents to attack voting centers and disrupt the democratic process, yet the people of Afghanistan defied all sorts of threats and went to the polling centers to cast vote to their favorite candidate.
The move to delay the preliminary elections comes at a time when the presidential elections contenders urged on transparency and fairness of the process and the separation of biometric verified votes from non-biometric, warned not to accept the result if the fraudulent and non-biometric votes are not removed from the elections tally center.
Hawa Alam Nuristani, IEC chief said the commission delayed the results for ensuing transparency in the elections and to properly quarantine the votes, she apologized to the people of Afghanistan over postponement of the result.
The US ambassador John. Bass hailed the steps taken by IEC to delay the votes result for transpire and there should not be rush on announcing the results.
The senators in their Sunday Session said that the independent elections commission should announce the preliminary results of the presidential elections as soon as possible, asserting that delay on the result announcement would cause deals on peoples votes.
On the other hand, Gulbadeen Hekmatyar another presidential nominee accused the government over mass fraud in the elections and insisted that only biometric votes have to be counted, counting non-biometric votes is not acceptable to us.
Hekmatayr said if the commission announced the fraudulent elections results the country will face electoral crisis, he said, do not force as to resort to violence.
His remarks and warnings to the elections commissions have sparked wide reactions from the foreign embassies based in Kabul and the people of Afghanistan.
Premature claims of victories by some of the leading elections contenders have created concerns among people.
Untimely victories’ claims by some of the electoral teams harmed the legitimacy of the elections commission and decease people’s trust on the elections. People already lost their trust in the elections due to fraud and security threats, the turnout in the elections was low than 2014 and 2009 as this time people did not find an attractive candidate to vote.
A few days back the stability and convergence electoral team accused the government for meddling in the elections and said police broke the lock of the elections digital center and entered into it at mid night which has increased people concerns regarding the elections but IEC denied the claims that the seal was picked by police and asserted that the police entered the hallway of the elections digital center due to chilly weather to warm themselves.
Visiting of foreign ambassadors from the elections commission created concerns among people over the legitimacy of the elections. A few days back Iranian ambassador visited the elections commission.
Fraudulent elections result should be avoided if not the county would plunge into electoral crisis once again similar to 2014 fraudulent elections which led the creation of the national unity government by the interventions of the then US secretary of state’s John Kerry.
