Afghan election run-off likely amid thousands of complaints

Afghanistan’s Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) says there is a “strong possibility” that the presidential election would go to a second round as it starts reviewing thousands of complaints.

According to Press TV, Maulvi Din Mohammad Azimi, Deputy Head of the IECC, said on Monday "Looking at the scope of complaints and objections that needs a thorough review, there could be a run-off."

Azimi said thousands of complaints from candidates had already been filed, adding that the review might take around five weeks.  

The announcement came a day after delayed preliminary results from the September 28 election showed that Afghanistan’s incumbent President Ashraf Ghani has won the country's presidential election with a slim majority.

On Sunday, the IEC said the total number of votes counted in the presidential election had been 1.8 million, with Ghani securing 50.64% of the votes.

Nearly a million of the initial votes were purged owing to irregularities, and about 300,000 more votes had problems, with only about 1.8 million valid votes from a total of 9.6 million registered voters in a population of around 37 million people.

The results from the poll were initially scheduled to be released on October 19, but the announcement was delayed twice — with IEC officials citing various technical problems.

Ghani has welcomed the IEC decision, saying the country was on the right path towards prosperity.  

However, Ghani’s only real rival Abdullah Abdullah, who currently shares power with him in the form of a unity government, has rejected the results.

"There is no doubt that based on clean votes, we are the winner," Abdullah told a crowd of supporters in Kabul.

If a review by the complaints commission reduces Ghani's vote share to below 50 percent and no other candidate has a majority, a second round will be held between the two top contenders.

Abdullah, who unsuccessfully ran in the two previous presidential elections, has repeatedly raised questions about the validity of hundreds of thousands of votes.

ME