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KABUL: Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the leader of “Stability and Convergence” had declared victory in presidential election held on 28th September, saying he obtained more votes comparing to his top rival President Ashraf Ghani.
Addressing a press conference on Monday, 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.
“The information that we have received show that 60 to 70 percent of people voted (for) us,” Saleh was quoted by news outlet VOA as saying in a story on its website.
Abdullah told newsmen that (IEC) has the authority to announce the result, but said based on their findings and analysis their votes are high.
“Only pure and clean votes of the people are acceptable,” Abdullah said, adding votes sans biometric is invalid.
Praising people’ participation in voting day, Abdullah said the impressive turnout was a response to those who want to determine people’s fate through violence and war.
He also praised Afghan security forces for reinforcement of security and IEC for running election. But he complaint some weakness such as missing names in voting lists that caused problem for the Afghans.
He also called on IEC to give no chance of interference to anyone into internal afros to the electoral body. He also termed the Electoral Complaints Commission of having an important task to look after frauds being registered by the people and presidential candidates.
At the same time, IEC Secretary Habib Rahman Nang in a press briefing said no candidates have the right to announce victory.
Only the IEC is the legal source to announce which candidate won the election, he added.
The body responsible for adjudicating complaints related to the Saturday’s elections has announced today it has received 2,275 poll-related complaints since voting day across the country.
Spokesman for Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC), Mohammad Qasem Alyas in a press conference said 2,275 complaints were so far recorded.
“Still we did not categorize the complaints, but mostly it was due to missing names in the voting lists, which is a technical issue,” he added.
