Alice Wells, the US principal deputy assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, thanked the Afghan Independent Election Council for its “work under challenging circumstances” and said that “concrete steps” must be taken “early” to form an inclusive negotiating team by Afghanistan’s government—“whomever that is.”
Presumably, Wells was referring to the imminent intra-Afghan negotiations, which are being discussed in the US-Taliban talks in Doha.
On Sunday, Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission announced the results of the preliminary voting round for the 2019 presidential elections, which were held on September 28. Ashraf Ghani came in first, followed by Abdullah Abdullah and then Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
Since polling day the vote-counting process has been plagued by controversy and the IEC’s credibility has been repeatedly called into question by candidates and other groups who accuse the commission of “fraud.” After Sunday’s results announcement, both Abdullah and Hekmatyar publicly called the results illegitimate.
Wells’ complete tweet: “Recognizing that a majority of Afghans were not able to vote, the eventual winner, whomever that is, must take early and concrete steps to ensure the country’s rich diversity is well reflected in its leadership and its negotiating team.”
By law, over the next three days, the Independent Election Complaints Commission (IECC) will be open to receive registered complaints about the process, and then the commission will spend the next “37 to 39 days” addressing the complaints.
Referring to this next phase, Alice G. Wells called on the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission of Afghanistan “to adjudicate any complaints in a professional and transparent manner.”
