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| Afghanistan |
| Ghani Wants IEC to Stop Partial Results Announcements |
| 2014-04-22 |
| [Tolo News] On Monday presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai held a presser and claimed the Independent Elections Commission (IEC) is confusing the public with announcements of partial results because invalid votes are included. Ghani told his supporters that the results will change after valid votes have been separated from the fraudulent ones. He also denied reports of a possible coalition with leading presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... In reaction to the 50 percent partial results released on Sunday, Ghani questioned the results announced by the IEC, asking: when the exact number of votes have not been confirmed, how is it possible for the IEC to release the outcome of 50 percent of votes? "We demand the election commission avoid announcing partial results without differentiating the votes," Ghani said. "Because this only confuses the public's perceptions and what we need to do now is move forward with trust because our duty is to stabilize the country. At this stage no one can say that the votes are clean because the results were partly clean and partly dirty." In response to Ghani's statement, IEC Spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor said that they have not hidden any information from the public. "The constitution states that information cannot be withheld from the people," he said. "We have shared all information with the people round the clock." He continued to criticize the IEC stating the term "clean vote" used by the commission is used loosely and that they did not consult with him prior to the release. Into his speech Ghani called on the other presidential candidates and encouraged them to harmony in fighting against fraud together like good colleagues, not rivals. The IEC announced partial results on Sunday with presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah in the lead. IEC Chief Mohammad Yousuf Nuristani announced that Abdullah is in the lead with 44.4 percent, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai trails with 33.2 percent, and Zalmai Rassoul ... former foreign minister and a very close confidant of Hamid Karzai. Before serving as foreign minister Rassoul also spent seven years laboring as a national security adviser to the president. An ethnic Pashtun born in Kabul, Rassoul was the valedictorian of his class at the illustrious Franco-American school in Kabul, Lycee Istiqal. He has an MD from the Paris Medical School in France..... is in third with 10.4 percent. "Today's announcement is not final," Nuristani emphasized. "There will be changes in the results as counting continues." |
| Posted by:Fred |