ABU DHABI, July 11. /ITAR-TASS/. Afghanistan’s presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai urged on Friday “an extensive audit” of the mid-June presidential runoff to deter possible domestic tensions, which could be triggered by disputed election results.
Late on Tuesday night, the Independent Election Commission announced the preliminary results of the second round of the presidential election held in Afghanistan on June 14, stating that Former Finance Minister Ahmadzai gained 56.44% of votes and won the runoff, as his only contender and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah secured 43.56% of votes.
“We believe that in order to form an atmosphere of trust, we need to hold an extensive audit,” Ahmadzai said after his meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul.
The country’s former top finance official said the situation following the elections in the country had been “critical” and therefore it was highly important to find the way out of it.
After the commission announced the preliminary voting results, Abdullah refused to accept them and declared himself the winner of the presidential election, while thousands of his supporters hit the streets of Kabul, voicing their disapproval over the alleged ballot rigging.
Afghanistan’s former top diplomat insists that the presidential runoff results be revoked allegedly due to mass violations at the polling stations.
Abdullah also accused former President Khamid Karzai of facilitating the alleged ballot rigging in favor of Ahmadzai.
Karzai, who ruled the troubled Central Asian country since December 2004, was not running in the elections as the constitution did not allow him to run for a third term of office.
The final results of the election were scheduled to be announced on July 22, and the inauguration is slated to be held on August 2.
The first round of the presidential election in Afghanistan on April 5 was monitored by a total of 325,000 local and foreign observers. Despite bad weather and the threat of terrorist attacks, the turnout at the national elections totalled 58% or around seven million people.