Abdullah Abdullah, the Chief Executive of Afghanistan and presidential candidate, at a ceremony on Sunday evening claimed that his team – the Stability and Convergence team– would have won Sunday’s preliminary tally if the people’s “clean” votes had been counted.
Based on the preliminary results announced by the IEC on Sunday, Abdullah earned 39.52% of the tally while his rival, the incumbent President Ashraf Ghani, won 50.4% of the total of 1.8 million votes cast in the September presidential election.
Abdullah said some “fraudulent” votes “were added” to the total number in Ghani’s favor.
“In order to show the tally more than 50%, a few types of ‘fraudulent’ votes were added (to the total number of votes). It means that 300 out of 2,400 ballot boxes that were not biometrically-registered have been counted (as valid votes), which makes almost 40,000 votes. Votes from 295 polling stations have been counted and this exceeds the actual number registered by Dermalog… And votes from 105 polling stations that did not exist and had only result sheets have been counted as valid,” Abdullah explained.
Abdullah called on his supporters to stay calm but assured them that their rights will be defended.
“We will defend the people’s vote with all our power. No doubt, we are the winning team based on the people’s clean votes. The Stability and Convergence is the winning team in this election,” Abdullah reiterated.
He said the election has entered a sensitive stage and that the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission should address the complaints transparently.
“We are questioning the 300,000 (disputed) votes and we expect the electoral complaints commission to act based on the law about votes which do not have biometric information, or that were cast outside of the legal the polling date… These votes should be excluded,” he added.
Abdullah meanwhile warned he would use “other options” if their demands were not addressed, but also mentioned “legitimate options.”
“'Fraud’ will not rule the people once again. Only the “clean” votes will determine the election results. We will use any legitimate option if our legitimate demand for transparency in the election is not addressed,” he said.