Afghan election run-off likely amid thousands of complaints

Afghanistan’s Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) says there is a “strong possibility” that the presidential election would go to a second round as it starts reviewing thousands of complaints.

"Looking at the scope of complaints and objections that needs a thorough review, there could be a run-off," Maulvi Din Mohammad Azimi, deputy head of the IECC, said on Monday.

Azimi said thousands of complaints from candidates had already been filed, adding that the review might take around five weeks.  

The announcement came a day after delayed preliminary results from the September 28 election showed that Afghanistan’s incumbent President Ashraf Ghani has won the country's presidential election with a slim majority.

On Sunday, the IEC said the total number of votes counted in the presidential election had been 1.8 million, with Ghani securing 50.64% of the votes.

Nearly a million of the initial votes were purged owing to irregularities, and about 300,000 more votes had problems, with only about 1.8 million valid votes from a total of 9.6 million registered voters in a population of around 37 million people.

The results from the poll were initially scheduled to be released on October 19, but the announcement was delayed twice — with IEC officials citing various technical problems.

Ghani has welcomed the IEC decision, saying the country was on the right path towards prosperity.  

Afghanistan’s incumbent president wins election, disgruntled rival rejects result, again

Afghanistan’s incumbent President Ashraf Ghani wins the presidential election in the country with a slim majority.

However, Ghani’s only real rival Abdullah Abdullah, who currently shares power with him in the form of a unity government, has rejected the results.

"There is no doubt that based on clean votes, we are the winner," Abdullah told a crowd of supporters in Kabul.

If a review by the complaints commission reduces Ghani's vote share to below 50 percent and no other candidate has a majority, a second round will be held between the two top contenders.

Abdullah, who unsuccessfully ran in the two previous presidential elections, has repeatedly raised questions about the validity of hundreds of thousands of votes.

Last week, Abdullah agreed to a recount but warned that he would not accept what he called a tainted result.

The election was meant to be the cleanest in Afghanistan’s young democracy, with a German firm supplying biometric machines that were supposed to stop people from voting more than once.

Abdullah previously claimed victory against Ghani believing he secured the most votes, before agreeing to wait for the recount and “absolutely” respecting the results if the process was proved to be fair and transparent.

He is seeking the presidency for the third time, after losing in 2009 and 2014.

The ongoing uncertainty raises the possibility that the country may head for a repeat of the power crisis that followed the last presidential election, in 2014. Then, Ghani and Abdullah fought a close and angry race that sparked widespread allegations of fraud and saw the United States step in to broker an awkward power-sharing agreement between the rivals under a unity government.

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