As per announcement of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) in Kabul, the incumbent President Ashraf Ghani won re-election by a hair’s breadth in a nationwide September vote, netting 50.64% of the preliminary tally — the majority he needed to avoid a second round of voting. Abdullah Abdullah, Ghani’s estranged governing partner and main contender, denounced the preliminary results as “fraudulent” and vowed to challenge them.
Ghani seemed to be in a jubilant mood while delivering the victory speech claiming that the country was on the right path towards prosperity and development but as was the case with 2014 election, the latest poll too is marred by allegations of fraud with main challenger describing the outcome as ‘illegitimate’. The dispute over transparency and fairness of the exercise would obviously have serious repercussions for the fragile national unity government in which Abdullah Abdullah is the Chief Executive. The controversy around elections was expected as results were repeatedly delayed amid accusations of misconduct and technical problems despite claims by the Commission to have tried its best to hold the poll in a fair manner. There are reasons to believe that accusations of Abdullah Abdullah are politically motivated as he is far behind Ghani and secured just around 39% vote about 11% less than Ghani but going by the fact that Taliban too have reservations about the elections, the outcome is feared to cause more divisions in the already highly polarized country. It may be recalled that the situation is akin to 2014 when both Ghani and Abdullah alleged massive fraud by the other, forcing the US to broker an awkward power-sharing arrangement that made Ghani President and Abdullah Chief Executive. It is because of this that both the US and the UN have reacted cautiously to the results with Washington saying it recognized that the announcement from the Election Commission “is preliminary and Afghanistan’s Electoral Complaints Commission will need to adjudicate any complaints filed by the candidates. The UN Secretary-General’s special representative for Afghanistan, Tadamichi Yamamoto, said the Commission “has an obligation to adjudicate any complaints it receives transparently and thoroughly so the election process may conclude in a credible manner,” and that “all candidates have the chance to raise any concerns they may have.” Under these circumstances, Ashraf Ghani is unlikely to receive the legitimate mandate as desired by him having full authority to negotiate any deal with Taliban, who are already in contact with the United States to explore possibilities of ending the long-drawn conflict in Afghanistan.
