The Independent Election Commission on Sunday warned the two runoff candidates against exploiting religious and ethnic divisions among Afghans during the campaign period set to begin this week. Spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor said those kinds of politics could undermine public support for the election process.
The second round campaign period will last 20 days, ending on June 11. The runoff vote will be held just a couple days after, on June 14.
“The election commission asks Dr. Abdullah Abdullah and Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai to avoid exploiting religious, racial and ethnic issues, this is a red line for the candidates,” Noor said.
Abdullah led the first round vote and is half ethnic Tajik, half Pashtun. His opponent, Ashraf Ghani, placed second place in the first round and is an ethnic Pashtun.
Abdullah and Ghani campaign offices have come out in support the statement from the IEC, and promised to avoid making ethnicity a bigger part of the election.
“This is a positive effort, politicians realize this issue well, and they try to keep ethnic issues from being exploited,” Abdullah campaign team member Amrullah Aman said.
“This time, we will travel to those provinces where we did not go in the first round,” Ashraf Ghani campaign team member Abbas Noyan said.
Based on the election law, candidates are allowed to allocate ten million Afghani for campaign expenditures. However, the election commission has noted that monitoring the finances of the campaigns is extremely difficult.
Source/Fuente: http://www.tolonews.com/elections2014/iec-warns-candidates-against-ethni...
