Afghanistan Times
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KABUL: The Government of Russia has welcomed the conduct of the presidential election in Afghanistan on September 28 despite the tense military and political situation and the existence of terrorist threats.
Fortunately, this election was accompanied by fewer casualties than the parliamentary elections of 2018, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.
“Nevertheless, we have to note the extremely low turnout, technical problems, including communication failures in the north and northeastern provinces and many complaints about the operation of biometric equipment, vote rigging and fraud. As a result, most of the candidates are now questioning the legitimacy of the voting returns,” the spokesperson added.
The announcement of preliminary voting results has been scheduled for October 19 and the final ones, for November 7. “We hope that the vote-counting procedure will be maximally fair and transparent and the election outcome will be recognised by the candidates and the Afghan people.”
If need be, the international community should be prepared to assist Afghanistan in performing an independent verification of the voting results, the spokesperson added.
