The Council of Presidential Candidates on Tuesday reiterated its call for the formation of a National Partnership Government and fresh election, warning the preliminary results announced by Independent Election Commission (IEC) can plunge the country into a political crisis.
The council, comprised of several presidential runners, said they did not accept fraud-marred outcome, stressing that wining through fraudulent election can further erode public trust in the democratic process.
Enayatullah Hafiz, a member of the council, told a press conference that even some IEC commissioners disagree with the initial results, so how can people be expected to acknowledge the false outcome.
He said the council had expressed concerns over IEC preparation for the process even before the election was held, claiming the figures of primary results are false and full of rigging.
He suggested that President Ghani, Abdullah Abdullah and Taliban should form a government of national partnership to steer the country out of the current chaos.
Ahmad Wali Massoud, another member of the council, said the election process was marred by fraud since its inception that is why the results are not acceptable to him.
He warned that if any tickets won election with fraudulent ballots, people would lose trust in election and nobody would dare to vote in the future.
Shahaab Hakimi, also a member of the council, said transparent election was impossible unless peace is ensured in the country.
“Since day one, we are calling for peace and caretaker government,” Hakimi said.
He said he had not lodged any complaints with Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) because he did not trust the panel to ensure transparency.
This comes as the Abdullah Abdullah-led electoral ticket lodged over 4,000 complaints with the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission on Monday, the first day of the three-day timeframe for complaints registration, as the team had already rejected the announced preliminary results of the September 28 presidential election as “fraudulent”.
