Presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah reiterated that his demands made on Wednesday are definite, stating that it is in line with the country’s law, on Thursday at a brief press conference in Kabul.
He asserted that the legitimacy of the election process is under question because the Independent Election Commission’s (IEC) Secretariat Zia-ul-Haq Amarkhail has not been suspended. He added that on the day of elections, the police had caught Amarkhail with ballots and without police escorts, but the investigation of this case has not been followed.
“From now on, any actions from the electoral commissions will be illegal and not acceptable for us,” Dr. Abdullah declared.
He sustained that the figure announced by the IEC—more than seven million—was questionable and that a clear figure has not been announced let alone the demands addressed, accusing the electoral bodies of not respecting his concerns.
“Our stance is to defend the rights of the Afghan people,” he explained. “When we talk elections, we talk about the rights of all Afghans.”
Dr. Abdullah, yet again, accused President Hamid Karzai proclaiming that, “President Karzai is responsible for this crisis.”
During the question and answer segment of the conference, Dr. Abdullah was approached with a statement that his decision will put the country in a dilemma. In response to this, he clarified that his decision is in the interest of the country and its people.
“We would like to assure the people of Afghanistan that all of our actions will be in the framework of the law,” he stated.
Dr. Abdullah also touched base on the role of the international community highlighting that they should not “illustrate insouciance to the massive frauds because the Afghan people took a risk in casting their ballots.”
Early Thursday afternoon, IEC Chief Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani and other IEC officials broadcasted their evaluation of result sheets. During the evaluation, Nuristani addressed Dr. Abdullah’s demands saying that they “will not stop the election process.”
“We cannot stop our process. If anyone has any questions we are responsible to provide an answer to them,” he said. “If Dr. Abdullah wants we can sit down and address his concerns to the best of our abilities.”
During the assessment of the result sheets, IEC officials said if the result sheets do not have the required signatures and stamp the sheet will be invalidated.
The IEC runoff election timeline states that preliminary results will be announced on July 2.
Source/Fuente: http://www.tolonews.com/elections2014/abdullah-firm-his-stance
