Crying foul: Poll candidates claim fraud

US, UN urge candidates not to make ‘premature judgments’.

KABUL: A roadside bomb killed 11 people, including five election workers in northern Afghanistan, officials said on Sunday, as a prolonged vote count began after the presidential run-off election. Election officials were sifting through fraud complaints from both candidates, and analysts said the lengthy count could be the trickiest phase in the country’s first democratic transfer of power.

More than 50 people were killed on polling day on Saturday by militant attacks. Eleven voters in the western province of Herat had their fingers - which were dipped in ink to register their ballot - cut off by insurgents, Deputy Interior Minister Ayoub Salangi said.

The US, along with the UN, urged the two candidates not to trade unproven fraud allegations, but both Abdullah and Ghani raised the issue immediately after polls closed. “It is win or lose now,” said Kate Clark, director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network. “The voting is only one phase of the election, and there is still a lot that could change. Being a good loser doesn’t gain you much here. ”

The preliminary result is due on July 2, before the complaints period begins, and the final result is scheduled for July 22.

“We have urged the candidates to act as statesmen, future presidents, rather than people simply in a competition with each other,” said Nicholas Haysom, the deputy chief of the UN mission.

The two candidates came top of an eight-man field in the April vote. Both candidates swiftly alleged fraud after the closure of the polls. “We know there has been fraud, you have seen it, we have seen it,” Abdullah said. Ghani called for a full investigation into rigging, saying “unfortunately there were cases of security forces involved in fraud, we have the evidence”. 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 16^th, 2014.