War-weary Afghans on Saturday voted in the country’s presidential election despite Taliban rocket attacks and bomb blasts in several areas.
The turnout was very low in most parts of the country including Kabul and the election officials could not announce the voters’ turnout. They say the turnout will be announced on Sunday.
Taliban attacks killed and injured dozens of people but there was no major attack anywhere in the country, according to officials.
President Ashraf Ghani in a video message congratulated the people and described the process successful. He praised election officials on the completion of the process and the security institutions to maintain security for the elections. He said those candidates who have complained about the rigging can approach the institutions concerned.
Ghani again urged the Taliban to stop fighting and join the peace process, which he said is the longstanding demand of the people. He said Afghan government has its doors open for peace negotiations. He said democracy in Afghanistan will further strengthen after the Saturday’s polls.
The election commission claimed that the elections were the most organized and transparent but Hekmatyar and several other candidates alleged the polls were rigged. On their part, the Taliban claimed the process was a failure and that the Kabul administration held a “staged election process to gain false legitimacy but faced failure and rejection by the vast majority of our nation.”
Many polling stations in capital Kabul were seen almost empty during the polling which started at 7 am local time and continued until 5 pm. Earlier, the election commission had announced that the polling will continue until 3 pm, but was later extended for two hours apparently because of the low turnout.
Saturday’s election was the fourth presidential election in the war-shattered Afghanistan since US toppled the Taliban government in 2001.
About 9.6 million people were registered to vote, according to the chairperson of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), Hawa Alam Nuristani. She said the whole election process was successfully completed and that 98 percent polling centers remained opened. She said 99.08 percent elections staff had reached the polling stations on time while the biometric facility was available at 98.09 percent of the centers.
Defence Minister Asadullah Khalid said the election process was completed without any major incident. He said security forces will help in transportation of the ballot boxes. Nearly 72,000 security personnel had been deployed to thwart the Taliban, who had declared to disrupt the election. As many as 5,000 polling stations opened on the election day while 445 stood closed due to security concerns.
Fifteen candidates, including incumbent president Ashraf Ghani, were in the race. Two candidates – former foreign minister Zalmay Rasoul and former Afghan ambassador to India Shaida Abdali – had withdrawn in favour of President Ghani and Hanif Atmar, who was previously considered as one of the key candidates, had pulled out of the election race
President Ghani, Chief Executive Dr Abdullah Abdullah, Hizb-e-Islami Chief Hekmatyar and several other candidates polled votes in capital Kabul, where the people’s participation in the election was insignificant.
Taliban issued a statement to take credit for the low turnout and said Afghan nation again “showcased that the wishes and occupation of all foreigners are unacceptable to them through the complete boycott and neutralization of machinations of the misleading Kabul administration elections.” “Today the stooge Kabul administration held a staged election process to gain false legitimacy but faced failure and rejection by the vast majority of our nation,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement. He said barring government staff, employees and a few mislead individuals in a number of cities, the ‘foreign imposed’ process was rejected and spurned by the masses.
Officials say final results will be announced within three weeks. To win election, a candidate should get 50 plus votes.