Political crisis looming in Afghanistan after disputed poll results

KABUL: Afghanistan seemed to be heading towards a fresh political crisis following the announcement of final results of last year’s presidential poll, as powerful politicians openly rejected them.

After more than four months of delay, the Afghan Independent Election Commission announced on Tuesday that incumbent President Ashraf Ghani had secured 50.64 per cent of votes in the September elections.

His main contender, Abdullah Abdullah, rejected the result and announced he would form his own, “inclusive” government.

General Dostum, a one-time ally of Ghani, who now supports Abdullah, on Wednesday declared in front of thousands of his supporters in northern Jawjzan province that he was supporting Abdullah’s plan of forming an “inclusive government.” He also rejected the results.

Dostum said Abdullah’s government would represent all ethni-cities of Afghanistan and called on the people to be fearless, to take on the streets and celebrate Abdullah’s victory.

Abdullah is currently chief executive of Afghanistan, a position created after the 2014 elections let to contested results and Abdullah spent months arguing that Ghani was not the real winner. The power-sharing compromise was reached with assistance from America.

Presidential candidate Rahmatullah Nabil said in a press conference on Wednesday “unfortunately, today we don’t have a legitimate government resulting from these election results”.

A resident of north-eastern Badakhshan province, Mahbod ur Rahman Talaat, said he was worried that Abdullah’s move to form a government might lead to a military encounter.

However, a resident of Parwan, Esmatullah Mohammadi said that he was not worried about a military confrontation at all, as people and the international community support Ghani’s victory.

So far, no head of state has congratulated Ghani.

Earlier, Afghanistan on Tuesday declared incumbent Ashraf Ghani winner of a disputed presidential election, but his main rival rejected the result and vowed to form his own government, threatening new turmoil as the United State strives to seal a US troop withdrawal deal with Taliban militants.

Polls were held on September 28 to select a president for the fourth time since US-led forces overthrew the Taliban government in 2001. But the process was marred by allegations of rigging, technical problems with biometric devices used for voting, attacks and other irregularities..

— dpa/AFP