Afghan elections: Vote count continues amid cries of foul play

Election commission chief says preliminary results will be out on April 24.

KABAL: Former Afghan foreign minister Dr Zalmai Rasoul – who was considered as one of the three top contenders in Saturday’s landmark Afghanistan’s presidential election – on Sunday claimed rigging as election officials continued to count ballots.

Addressing a news conference in Kabul, Dr Rasoul warned that the people would not accept a president elected through vote fraud. He, however, said the turnout had been reasonable as millions of people defied Taliban threats and thronged to polling centres.

The Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) has received over 1,000 complaints of rigging, a senior official said.



The IECC spokesman, Nader Mohseni, told a news conference that investigation into the alleged fraud would start on Monday and would continue till April 28.

Two other front-runners – Dr Ashraf Ghani and Dr Abdullah Abdullah – are claiming lead based on unofficial results they received from their agents in parts of the country.

Section of the Afghan media has been reporting that Abdullah and Ghani are neck and neck in early counting. Zalmai Rasoul, who was widely believed to be the choice of outgoing president Hamid Karzai, is far behind, so far.

Private Independent Pajhwok news agency has reported the results it has collected from its 60-odd correspondents in many of the country’s 34 provinces. It shows Ghani has an edge over Abdullah.

However, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) chairman, Ahmad Yousuf Nouristani, says preliminary results will come out on April 24 and the final result will be announced by mid May.

Some media has also hinted at a runoff, claiming that no candidate has got the required 50% plus 1 votes. Ghani has been quoted as saying that he will sweep the polls and there will be no need for a runoff.

Afghan TV channels’ role in results

Contrary to what happens in Pakistan on the elections day, Afghan TV channels are not reporting unofficial results. However, some local journalists and supporters used the social media to post results from their respective areas. Only Pajhwok news agency has reported some unofficial results but also did not get coverage in the media.

No TV channel has set any election cell to share unofficial results. The culture of breaking news is also very rare. As the whole Afghan media has boycotted the Taliban’s news after a journalist and his family were killed in last month’s Serena Hotel attack, it did not carry any of the Taliban statement about elections.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2014.