Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Tuesday, April 16th, 2024

Frustrating Activities of Presidential Candidates

Mr. Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom encouraged the two presidential candidates to form a national united government soon. In a declaration released by UK embassy in Kabul, it says that Mr. Cameron has encouraged the two candidates while the audit process goes on they should form a united government, calling both Mr. Ashraff Ghani Ahmadzai, the leader of Changes and Continuity and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah the leader of Reform and Partnership team.

After the US continuous effort to break the deadlock by our respected presidential candidates, it is the first time that UK is stepping ahead due to overwhelming worries about the destiny of election. Despite criticisms from both teams against the way votes are invalidated, the Reform and Partnership once again pulled out of the process. Earlier, the team withdrew when it claimed of extensive vote-rigging in favor of his rival, Dr. Ashraff Ghani, in the runoff Presidential election. He cut all ties and said that both Election Commissions---Independent Election Commission (IEC) and Independent Election Complaint Commission (IECC) ---did not listen to its legal appeals.

Dr. Abdullah Abdullah set  redline for the election commission, saying if it announced the result without clearing his team’s complaint regarding frauds, he would not resume any cooperation with it. Despite his warning, the election commission announced the primary result which reflected that Dr. Ashraff Ghani was ahead with over 1.5 million votes.

So, to break the deadlock, the US and its allies and United Nations suggested audit of the entire votes which was accepted by Election Commission and leadership of Change and Continuity team and welcomed by Dr. Abdullah Abdullah.

But Mr. Abdullah Abdullah once again has withdrawn from the process on allegations that his standards were not considered in invalidation process. However, he has not talked in detail what actually was not considered.

It should be noticed that though all standards proposed by Dr. Abdullah Abdullah’s team were not accepted, it did accept the standards proposed by United Nations. Both teams have agreed that they accept the standard. After the announcement of invalidation of votes, both teams have criticized. It is not possible that the ballot papers were invalidated without consideration of the standards proposed by United Nations and the ones that both teams agreed, because if such thing had happened, it would have been the United Nations officials to voice out concerns.

Thus, it would be so kind of our respected candidates to avoid playing with destiny of thirty million Afghans. People have supported them so much and do not want both candidates under the name of protection of their rights only think about power.