KABUL (Pajhwok): Presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah on Monday reiterated his stance, saying he rejected the result of the mid-June runoff.
He renewed his commitment to defending people’s votes and the election of new leadership based on genuine ballots. But Abdullah said he would not accept a government elected through fraud.
Addressing a gathering of supporters in Kabul, he said the international community had evinced its interest in facilitating a solution to the election crisis.
“We remain convinced that elections represent the best guarantee of a bright future for Afghanistan,” he remarked, lamenting Independent Election Commission and government officials connived at rigging the polls.
Six months after the historic vote, the results stayed uncertain, the candidate said. The Afghans, including religious scholars, tribal elders and youth, had overwhelmingly supported him, he claimed.
The ex-foreign minister also referred to the UN-supervised audit of the votes, saying he wanted to separate bogus ballots from genuine ones to lend the process credence and transparency.
But the audit haste hit snag soon after it was launched, he said, adding the exercise was initiated even before he reached a comprehensive agreement with his rival Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai.
His agents walked out of the audit several times because of glaring anomalies, but the authorities concerned made no sincere efforts to expose the irregularities.
Despite his concerns, thousands of bogus votes were counted for reasons best known to the commission and international observers, the former minister deplored.
On the government of national unity, Abdullah said he had entered negotiations in the spirit of resolving the crisis. “But my opponents mistook my commitment to conceding defeat.”
A joint commission involving representatives of both sides sorted out several issues, but the chief executive’s authority remained a sticking point, he acknowledged.
“My supporters, the people of Afghanistan, reserve the right to ask about the delay in winding up the process in a transparent and acceptable way,” he remarked, announcing his victory.
He accused the IEC and the Karzai administration of throwing their weight behind his opponent. His side only exercised its democratic right to stage protests in Kabul against the authorities’ rank partiality.
Abdullah maintained his willingness for talks with the people involved in rigging essentially stemmed from his quest for peace, stability and economic prosperity in the country.
