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KABUL: The political situation remains uncertain and perennially acrimonious before and after election authority put a seal on incumbent president Ghani’s re-election in 2019 presidential polls, with his rivals threatening to form their own government. What’s worse is a quiescence of Afghanistan’s allies and international community toward the electoral crisis.
International community is reluctant to comment or intercede in Afghanistan’s post-election chaos that is intuitively unfolding. This silence is speculated to be owing to a cynicism of our allies toward the eccentrically protracted elections and seek a peaceful solution to this crisis.
Electoral shellacking represents a turning point for President Ghani. After months of painstaking audit and recount, Independent Election Commission on Tuesday declared incumbent president Ashraf Ghani as the winner of the 2019 contested presidential elections with 50.64% of the vote, amid claims of vote rigging by his rival and governing partner in the ongoing unity government Abdullah Abdullah. The final result puts Abdullah at 39.52%.
Political pundits believe that a prolongation of election could have affected a global viewpoint. This is as acting U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Ross Wilson, said last week that election results must be declared in concert with consent of all stakeholders.
Soon after the announcement of election results, presidential candidate Rahmatullah Nabil urged the international community to refrain from supporting Ghani and Abdullah until the post-election uncertainty is resolved.
This comes as the United States Department of State and its embassy in Afghanistan and the United Nations welcomed the preliminary results announced back in December.
