Afghan Presidential Candidate Abdullah Abdullah shows his inked finger as he casts his vote at a local polling station in Kabul on April 5, 2014. PHOTO: AFP
Partial results for Afghanistan’s presidential elections released on Sunday placed Dr Abdullah Abdullah, one of the three frontrunners, far ahead of his rivals in the race for the country’s top post.
The first batch of the results – which have been posted on the website of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) of Afghanistan – revealed Dr Abdullah received 212,312 votes (41.9% of the results tallied so far). His close rivals, Dr Ashraf Ghani and Dr Zalmai Rassoul bagged 140,561 (37.6%) and 49,821 votes (9.8%) respectively.
The results released so far are based on 10% of the votes cast in the landmark elections.
In a statement after the results were revealed, Dr Ghani urged his sympathisers to show patience. A similar appeal was voiced by the United Nations representative in Kabul.
“These results can change as we count more votes… a candidate leading right now could lag behind with the availability of fuller results,” IEC Chairman Ahmed Yusuf Nuristani told journalists at a news conference in Kabul.
He said the poll body had only counted 500,000 votes so far from 26 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. Votes from the Badakshan, Wardak, Baghlan, Dai Kundi, Ghor, Nuristan, Ghazni and Paktika provinces were not included in the partial tally.
Preliminary results covering the entire country are scheduled to be announced on April 24. The final results will be revealed on May 14, once the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) has adjudicated complaints raised against the preliminary tally.
International observers said the lead of any candidate on the basis of 10% votes could not be presumed as a victory.
“It would be premature to believe that a particular candidate will win the elections based on 10% of the vote,” said Aimal Khattak, a Pakistani national part of an international observer group in Afghanistan. Khattak has also observed the previous two presidential elections in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, election complaint officials said they have documented some 1,892 cases of fraud and electoral violations, of which 870 complaints fall under category ‘A,’ – which signifies they are of the most serious nature.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 14th, 2014.
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