KABUL (Pajhwok): The residents of eastern Nangarhar province say they are not satisfied with the initial Wolesi Jirga election results and suspect ‘under-hand’ deals between candidates and the election commission.
After a long wait, the preliminary Wolesi Jirga election results from Nangarhar were announced last night, with 14 contestants, half of them new faces, finding their way to the lower house of parliament.
The leading candidates in Nangarhar include Abdul Karim Karimi with 10585 votes, Faridon Khan Momand with 7721 votes, Abdul Rauf Shapon with 7342 votes, Amir Mohammad Yar with 7198 votes, Mirwais Yasini with 6698 votes and Hazrat Ali with 6471 votes.
Former lawmakers Haji Zahir Qadir, Asmatullah Shinwari, Syed Ikram, Amir Jan Dawlatzai, Abdul Ghafar Qayel, Farishna Noori and Pir Bakhsh Gardiwal could not win to be reelected.
The residents say they are not happy with the initial results and insist some well- trusted and most votes-getters have been declared as unsuccessful.
Mohammad Ashraf Idris, a resident of Surkhrod district’s Fateh Abad area, said mostly former lawmakers had been declared winners in the results and people would not expect something good from the already tested individuals.
He said only four of the winning candidates, including a woman, were reliable persons and they might deliver on their promises.
Hela Asad, a resident of Jalalabad, the provincial capital, said the results were against people’s expectations and mostly the old faces once again declared as winners.
She said female lawmakers had been unable to properly represent their communities in the past.
Civil society activist Burhanuddin Serat said candidates who obtained real votes of people could not succeed and those cutting deals with the election commission were declared winners.
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