Afghanistan lurches into new political crisis after Abdullah’s fraud claims

UN, Western nations concerned of war-torn country’s descent into further turmoil.

ISLAMABAD: The worst fear of some Afghans may be coming true as the country seemingly descends into a political crisis with presidential hopeful Dr Abdullah Abdullah, who gained the majority of votes in the first round, alleging vote fraud in the run-off vote.

Abdullah, who has announced that he will not accept the results, says the responsibility of the crisis lies with President Hamid Karzai. The former foreign minister has boycotted the counting process and insists any action from the election commission is illegal and unacceptable.

His electoral camp has questioned the turnout figures declared by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and called for a rerun in some areas, claiming more votes were reported cast than the total number of eligible voters in at least eight provinces.

Some Afghan analysts believe Abdullah’s boycott has come late as counting is already under way with preliminary results expected in the next couple of days.

“Abdullah’s boycott would have been effective had he taken the decision on polling day (June 14) as now it has no legal justification,” Afghan writer Nazar Mutamayen told The Express Tribune from Kabul by phone.

Abdullah’s supporters, however, say the team had registered its complaints against the nomination of senior election officials in some areas but the IEC did not pay heed to their objections.

“I was among Abdullah’s team which registered complaints about the appointment of election officials in Kunar, Laghman and Nangarhar provinces days before the polls, but our objections were rejected,” said Anayat Safi, an Abdullah campaigner in Kunar province.

He said Abdullah’s supporters have started protests in Kabul and other cities against the rigging, adding protest camps have been set up in the capital to mount pressure on the IEC to stop the vote count.

The show must go on

The IEC has refused to stop the vote count, with its chief Ahmad Yousaf Nuristani saying initial results are likely to be announced on Saturday (today).

Talking to the independent TOLO news, Nuristani claimed an estimated seven million voters participated in the second round of polling.

However, a member of Abdullah’s camp, Qurban Haqjo, told the media the turnout figure was around five million.

IEC Spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor told TOLO news on Friday that no candidate can leave the election process, saying the commission does not want either candidate to create a political crisis.

The pro-Abdullah Mandegar newspaper stated on June 17 that “almost three million votes have been rigged in favour of a candidate according to an organised plan based on a conspiracy. Votes in some districts are three times higher than the total population.”

On the other hand, Dr Ashraf Ghani’s campaigners have criticised Abdullah’s aggressive posture and advised him to follow the legal route if he has reservations over the voting process.

The world worries

As a crisis of division looms with most foreign troops set to withdraw this year, the United Nations and key Western countries are concerned over the recent political ripples.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has called for respect of the country’s constitution as well as its IEC, reminding both candidates of the code of conduct signed by them where they pledged to cooperate with electoral authorities.

“With the utmost concern, UNAMA notes that appeals to circumvent or abandon the legal process and appeal directly to supporters could incite violence. Indeed, some people have already called for civil disobedience and some incidents have already taken place,” said UNAMA chief Ján Kubiš in a recent statement.

The US Embassy in Kabul hopes that Abdullah will resume cooperation with the IEC. “There are specific guidelines for the review and addressing of complaints in each step of the election process,” the embassy said in a statement.

The British embassy has emphasised that peoples’ votes must be respected and urged electoral bodies to seriously and immediately address all complaints.

With Abdullah turning his guns at Karzai and the election bodies, the Afghan media predicts an uncertain future, with some sections claiming the only beneficiaries of the subsequent crisis will be the militant groups.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2014.