KABUL (Pajhwok): The governor of central Maidan Wardak on Friday accused presidential runner Dr. Abdullah’s team of distorting his conversation with an army official about the June 14 runoff vote.
A day earlier, Abdullah camp member Abdul Jabbar Sholgarai told journalists in Kabul Governor Abdul Majeed Khogyani had committed fraud in favour of Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai.
He released a taped telephonic conversation between Khogyani and an Afghan National Army (ANA) officer in the Jaghatu district of Wardak.
In the audio recording, the governor told the army officer: “I spoke with the election commission. You just keep security outside polling centres and don’t interfere with things inside...”
In response, the officer said: “We have adopted tight security measures and won’t allow anyone to commit fraud because both runners are candidates of Afghanistan’s people.”
Khogyani alleged his conversation had been distorted by the Reform and Unanimity team. He demanded the release of the complete discussion.
The governor explained he had received complaints against ANA officials’ interference from residents of Jaghatu district and other areas, IEC officials and supporters of Ahmadzai.
In an effort to address the problem, Khogyani he phoned to the army officers but complaints of fraud in favour of Abdullah continued to trickle in.
Khogyani said in a statement that residents and Ghani’s backers were so infuriated that they threatened to stage a demonstration against the army and share the issue with the media.
Following the complaints, the governor said he phoned ANA officer Asadullah, who had been blamed for entering a female voting centre in Jaghatu.
Khogyani said: “I told him, you are a Pakhtun and I too am a Pakhtun. “A Pakhtun can neither do such things nor tolerate them. However, some parts of my conversation were deleted and others distorted.”
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