Following the Afghan presidential election held on Saturday, the US State Department on Monday released the following statements (in bold):
• We applaud the courage of Afghan voters who showed up at the polls despite technical challenges and threats of violence. We also commend poll workers and the Afghan security forces who worked to secure voters and polling sites for their courage.
The counting of votes is ongoing, but over 2 million votes have been tallied so far, according to the Independent Election Commission (IEC). Although this number is well below the number of registered voters-- over 9 million—the Election Commission has stated that due to a crackdown on fraudulent votes or “ghost votes” the numbers will be smaller than for previous elections.
TOLOnews reporters who covered the election from provinces all over Afghanistan noted that skepticism about the legitimacy of the election kept many Afghans from voting, as did fear of attacks from the Taliban, who threatened earlier to disrupt the electoral process. Also, the practical difficulties presented to Afghan women, who by local custom do not want to show their faces to be digitally scanned, may have significantly affected the vote count, even though the IEC made a last-minute provision for women to use photographs for identification instead.
Also, there were problems with the biometric devices used to verify voters’ identities, but Reuters has reported there were less problems than with the previous election, and although the devices caused delays, there were backup devices available and an IT helpline. A bigger problem was that many would-be voters did not find their names on the pre-approved voter lists, which was a challenge caused, according to the IEC, from having to merge a “technical system”-- involving biometric and other online data---with the “physical process” of registration.
• We categorically condemn all attacks on voters and other efforts to undermine the election. These attacks stand in stark contrast to the aspirations of the Afghan people for peace, security, and economic stability.
Over 260 security incidents were reported during Saturday’s presidential election, security sources said, with 90 of the incidents directly targeting the polling centers. These sources told TOLOnews that over 20 police officers and nine civilians were killed as a result of these incidents, while 37 police officers and 70 civilians were wounded. The Afghan government deployed over 72,000 security force members to provide security for the election process, according to these sources.
Nevertheless, many international news agencies have reported that Afghan security prevented mass-casualty attacks on the day of elections, despite Taliban threats.
• Afghan government institutions and leaders must be transparent and accountable to the Afghan people. We expect Afghanistan’s institutions to take all necessary steps to ensure the election, including the investigation of complaints and tabulation of results, is transparent and credible to Afghan voters and the international community.
A complaint hotline hosted by TOLOnews on WhatsApp received thousands of responses, many about problems with biometric devices and names not on voter lists, but there were also allegations of corruption, including video clips showing votes being illegally counted at specific polling sites. But larger accusations between the teams of presidential candidates leading up to the election have made corruption the dominant conversation about the election, both within Afghanistan and international stakeholders. A group of Afghan leaders, led by former president Hamed Karzai, issued statements just days before the election requesting that the election be canceled because it will not be considered legitimate, which in turn might lead to chaos.
•While waiting for an announcement of authoritative results by the Independent Election Commission (IEC), we urge both candidates and voters not to prejudge the outcome of the election or speculate on partial returns.
Even as official vote counts are still being tallied and verified, presidential candidates are already offering recommendations for how the results should be handled. For example, on Monday night Presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah stated that he would like to only allow for the “pure votes,” meaning votes from people who were in the voter database and were confirmed by the biometric devices (some voters were allowed to bypass this requirement because of the system glitches).
The Independent Election Commission continues to provide updates on the vote count as various polling stations around the country report their numbers, some of which were delayed--and with whom the IEC has had little or no communication--because of insurgent attacks on telecom infrastructure that cut off mobile and internet access.