KABUL (Pajhwok): The Council of Presidential Candidates on Tuesday asked the Independent Election Commission (IEC) to consider transparency instead of speed in its work in order the September 28 presidential election avoided a repeat of 2014 crisis.
Rahmatullah Nabil, Ahmad Wali Massoud and Shahab Hakimi, members of the council, addressed a joint press conference here.
Nabil said their council had decided not to accept the election results even if a single non-biometric vote was counted as valid. “Biometric votes also had problems, but we accept them as valid,” he said.
The IEC has also said it would count only biometric votes as valid.
Nabil called fraud in election as manipulating democracy and stressed accuracy in vote count and said there was no need for hurry in announcing the election results. “Transparency is important in election”, he added.
Ahmad Wali Massoud, another presidential candidate, said the Council of Presidential Candidates on September 4 in a statement had asked for a delay in holding the election for the sake of transparency in the process but their request was rejected. “We tolerated a fraudulent election for people’s hopes.”
He asked the election commissions and the international community to consider transparency, not speed, in announcing the election results so the mistakes of 2014 election were not repeated.
Mohammad Shahab Hakimi, another candidate, said fraud in 2014 election led to crisis and involvement of former US secretary of State John Kerry.
He said the national unity government was created by the US, not by the Afghan people.
Hakimi asked election commissions to focus on transparency in the election and avoid past mistakes.
Mds/ma