Kabul, September 17: The Afghan president’s campaign team has condemned as ‘irresponsible’ claims by EU observers who announced that up to 1.5 million votes in the August 20 election could be fraudulent.
The 200 EU election observers in Afghanistan said Wednesday that there were around 1.5 million ‘suspicious’ ballots cast in Afghanistan’s presidential election.
“We have calculated 1.5 million suspicious votes,” said Dimitra Ioannou, the deputy head of the European Union Election Observation Mission to Afghanistan.
Incumbent President Hamid Karzai’s team reacted angrily to the statement of the EU observers.
“Today’s announcement of the number of suspected votes, by the head and deputy head of the EU Election Monitoring Commission, is partial, irresponsible and in contradiction with Afghanistan’s constitution,” a statement from his campaign office said.
“According to the constitution of Afghanistan, addressing the electoral complaints is the responsibility of the Election Complaints Commission.”
Afghanistan’s Electoral Complaints Commission says it will recount 10 percent of the ballots of polling stations used in the presidential vote.
This is while preliminary results have given Karzai 54 percent of the vote.
Abdullah has called for a presidential run-off vote with two candidates to ensure the legitimacy of the process and the winner’s credibility.
“We believe the only way we can have a legitimate result out of the current process is to allow the legal institutions to complete the process and refrain from interfering in their affairs,” the statement said.
—–Agencies