Afghans who cast their votes in Saturday’s presidential election demand that every possible action be taken to prevent fraud and create transparency in the counting process.
“I voted in the election…our demand for the IEC is that someone who really has the majority of the votes should be elected as the country’s new leader,” said a Kabul city resident.
“We ask the government to prevent fraud because people are tired of the fraud,” said another Afghan in Kabul, adding that Afghans have voted for a peaceful and secure future because they are tired of war and bloodshed in the country.
“We voted for peace and security in our country and to get rid of this war and killing,” another resident said.
Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah in a statement on Monday said: “In order to protect the pure votes of the people, leaders of Stability and Convergence election campaign suggest not giving credit to non-biometric votes to ensure the credibility and transparency of the elections,” reads a statement by Abdullah Abdullah’s campaign.
The IEC has less than three weeks to announce the final results.
If no presidential candidate wins a majority of votes (over 50 percent), the second round of the election will be held between the two top candidates.
At the same time, the Council of Presidential Candidates on Sunday released a statement expressing serious concern about the problems and shortcomings in the election process.
The election process has faced serious shortcomings in Afghanistan since the beginning, said the council in a statement, “although the election is a turning point for democracy and the only way out of the current crisis.”
Members of the presidential candidates’ council now await the announcement of the final results of the election, to which they will respond.
Officials from the Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Sunday said that the results of 3,763 polling centers from across the country have arrived in Kabul, and the current count of presidential votes is 2,196,463.
Speaking at a news conference in Kabul, the Election Commission’s chief Hawa Alam Nuristani said that the organization is determined to protect the votes of the Afghan people and prevent any kind of fraud.
