KABUL (Pajhwok): The electoral crisis deepened on Wednesday when three more presidential candidates including Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar rejected the final election result as unacceptable.
On Tuesday, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) announced the much-delayed final results of the presidential election, saying incumbent President Ashraf Ghani won but his runner up Abdullah Abdullah contested the results.
The incumbent Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Abdullah, also announced the establishment of his own but inclusive government on Tuesday and issued a decree barring election commission workers from leaving the country.
Today three more presidential candidates rejected the final election results. HIA leader and presidential candidate Hekmatyar’s electoral team said the final results were announced under pressure from a specific electoral team and the outcome was not acceptable to them.
The team’s spokesman, Fazl Ghani Haqmal, told Pajhwok Afghan News said the presidential election had not been transparent and had been under external and internal pressures.
He said the results the election commission announced yesterday were full of fraud and were not acceptable to them.
Meanwhile, Security and Justice electoral team leader Rahmatullah Nabil tweeted that the announcement of the final election results was equal to inviting another crisis in the country.
“Had Ashraf Ghani or anyone else won the election in a transparently manner, we have the courage to greet him, but the history will hold the fraudsters responsible for the crisis.”
Similarly, Independence, Justice, Security and National Cohesion electoral team leader Latif Padram issued a statement, saying the final election results were not acceptable to him and called for creation of a federal government.
Meanwhile, Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA) spokesman Samir Rasa said the two electoral bodies – the IEC and the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) had developed serious differences.
She said their responsibility had been to monitor the electoral process and the IEC should convince the protesting candidates about the results.’
