Afghanistan Times
Related Articles
AT News
KABUL: India on Monday has welcomed the preliminary results of the Afghan presidential election that was held on September 28th. A statement from the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the complaints regarding discrepancies in counting should be addressed through legal processes.
“We welcome the announcement of the preliminary results of the presidential election of Afghanistan held on 28 September and commend all the leaders and institutions for their hard work to preserve and strengthen democracy in the country,” said MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar.
A preliminary result declared on Sunday gave majority to President Ashraf Ghani. His main challenger Abdullah Abdullah doubted over a large number of votes cast.
“We expect that the complaints would be addressed through the prescribed legal processes so that the final results are declared in a timely manner,” said Mr. Kumar.
The long-delayed preliminary results of the September vote have finally announced on Sunday by Independent Election Commission (IEC) that shows President Ashraf Ghani leading with 50.64 percent and his main rival Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, with 39.5 votes.
IEC Chairwoman, Hawa Alam Nuristani in a news conference put the total voters to 1,824,401, with 31 percent of women, in which Ashraf Ghani received 923,868 votes (50.64 percent), and Chief Executive Dr. Abdullah Abdullah 720,990 votes (39.52 percent) and the rest contenders obtain less.
Head of IECC, Zuhra Bayan Shinwari in a press conference said that complaints over initial election results could be registered within three days. She also assured to address complaints sufficiently, and empathized that it was initial election results, not final. She stated that it will take 39 days to address all the electoral complaints.
