The presidential race heated up this week as runoff candidates Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai and Abdullah Abdullah exchanged blows over damaging rumors being spread about each of them. Ashraf Ghani went so far as to challenge Abdullah to a religious debate under the suspicion that his rival had fed questions about his religious devotion.
The two candidates led the first round vote and are now scheduled to face-off once again in a runoff on June 14. With the second round campaign period about to begin, hostility between the two presidential hopefuls seems to have reached a new height.
“We have strong faith, and no one should accuse another Afghan of impiety,” Ashraf Ghani said about his campaign on Wednesday. “We dedicated part of our lives to religious education, and I do not want to answer these rumors with nightly pamphlets - we are ready for a religious debate with anyone.”
Although he did not specify what exactly he was responding to, Ghani’s comments came after social media over the past few days were filled with rumors denigrating the former Finance Minister as an infidel.
Nevertheless, any direct connection between Abdullah’s campaign and the slander on social media, if one in fact exists, remains unclear.
Just hours after Ghani made his debate challenge, Abdullah scoffed at the invitation and called it a joke. “This is part of pre-campaign jokes, I do not feel that it is necessary that I prove my credibility on faith to the people of Afghanistan,” Abdullah said.
“...it was a lame joke and I never challenged them,” he added.
Abdullah also took the opportunity to denounce speculations that have circulated recently undermining his own candidacy. “They say that if our team wins, violence will emerge in Afghanistan and there would be tyranny,” Abdullah said.
“But the foundation of our team gets stronger every day.”
Both Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani have been accused by election officials and monitoring groups of exacerbating ethnic divisions between their supporters. Abdullah is half Tajik and half Pashtun, while Ghani is entirely Pashtun. Yet both candidates have publicly denounced ethnic-politicking and said the country must stand united at this pivotal stage in its history.
This year’s presidential election marks Afghanistan’s first democratic transition of power in modern history. However, there is little doubt that how smooth the transition is depends on how gracefully the winner wins and the loser loses.
Source/Fuente: http://www.tolonews.com/elections2014/ghani-invites-abdullah-religious-d...
