Afghanistan faces bloody insurgency on one front and endless electoral stalemate amidst huge uproar of electoral fraud on the other. There were some 800 fighters who launched coordinated attacks more than a week ago, in the quest to retake the bases left behind by NATO in the southern province of Helmand. The election crisis comes as Taliban insurgents launched a major offensive in southern Afghanistan in a sign of the challenges that Afghan security forces face with declining NATO military support. A considerable number from both Afghan National Army and Afghan police rendered their lives in defending their motherland whilst the country suffers political deadlock.
In spite of precious time interval lapsed since the onset of the presidential runoff, yet IEC couldn’t succeed declaring, even the preliminary results of the election, amidst the cry of well engineered electoral fraud in the process. Dr. Abdullah, the presidential front runners, the principal accuser, formerly called for mass protests in the wake of finding his concerns not addressed.
The election commission has turned controversial, provided it had a favorite and is alleged to have extended a popular support for one of the contestants. Consequently, Dr. Abdullah’s team blatantly aimed to turn down, any such result drawn prior to his apprehension is done away with. Lately, the Independent Electoral Complaint Commission (IECC) asked the United Nations to extend its help to verify the fraud-related audio clips recently released by the presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah. The other claims entail the voter turnout remained as high as the former, cannot be justified. Identically, there are several provinces that observed surprisingly more ballots than provided by official figure. Both, the election commission and the government are equally responsible for political deadlock for being hesitant to address the concerns of front runner contenders by making inexplicable justification.
Amidst decry of electoral irregularities Ghani’s team claims, election was clean and their candidate rendered victorious being 1.3 million votes ahead of his rival. This bold, confident but distrustful claim is enough to accredit the degree of fraud undertaken. Else, how would a contender know about number of votes he secured before the preliminary result is declared officially, one might inquire?
Dr. Abdullah, following cool response from government and election commission believes, he had been denied victory in the 2009 election; a similar plot is underway to snatch away presidential seat therefore, vowed not to step down over alleged ballot-box stuffing. Hence, series of protest is staged against alleged electoral fraud. Formerly, several thousand Abdullah supporters of Dr. Abdullah held a large rally in Kabul and further protests are planned on the eve of the results announcement.
Pursuing, the worsening state of affairs, the probability of possible political tension ripens. Any clashes between supporters could ignite unrest and civil disorder that centrally serve the interest of insurgents who have already launched attacks against the government. It is feared if serious measures are not taken to foil the chaotic situation the condition may reach to the point of no return.