For the first-time, foreign countries and international institutions are not reacting publicly to the Afghan Independent Election Commission’s (IEC) final presidential election result announcement, which came on Tuesday and named President Ashraf Ghani the next president of Afghanistan.
Election observers’ institutions said that disagreements between the election campaign teams is preventing the international team from reacting.
Hours after the announcement, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the chief executive of Afghanistan, rejected the results and announced himself the winner of the election.
“This morning, however, the independent election of Afghanistan announced that President Ghani received over 50 % of the votes thereby precluding runoff. We understand that Chief Executive Abdullah and others felt the process was fraud and they are challenging the announcement,” said Mary Catherine "Molly" Phee, US Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation.
The silence of the international organizations over the election process raised questions.
“There are several reasons for foreigners not to declare an explicit position; the first is that the situation inside the country is troubled and foreign countries don’t want to show preference for a particular party or a particular team,” said Mohammad Akram Arifi, university lecturer.
“It shows that the world is worried about the outcome of the election, thinking that it cannot stand with stability against challenges in the region,” said Ahmad Saeedi, lecturer of university.
Meanwhile, Rahmatullah Nabil, a presidential candidate, urged the international community to not comment about the election announcement because the election problems are not solved completely.
Hamid Karzai, former president of Afghanistan, reacted to the election result and said that the election might not be accepted naturally.
“I had previously said to my beloved people that holding the elections in a situation where there is no proper condition for making sure it is transparent and fair will create a crisis and segregation and will disrupt the peace process in our beloved country,” former President Hamid Karzai said in a statement.
On the other hand, the Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan (TEFA) and the Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan (FEFA) called on countries and international institutions like the United Nations (UN) to make their stance clear regarding the election.
“The parliamentary election in 2018 was not very interesting but was welcomed and endorsed by the international community. But today the international community is silent; this means that the process is not properly managed,” said Naim Ayoubzada, head of TEFA.
“We hope that the international community takes a stance regarding the final results of the election,” said Samira Rasa, spokesman for FEFA.
The election, which was held in September 28, 2019, cost $150 million, 60 million of which was paid for by the international community, especially the US.