Afghan Elections
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Afghanistan has suddenly grown tense as presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah publicly declared himself the winner of June’s disputed run-off presidential elections on Monday. This statement came days before the announcement of audited election results, which are expected to give the election to Abdullah’s rival, Ashraf Ghani. Ghani is a Pashtun whose support is in southern Afghanistan while Abdullah is (half) Tajik, with a power base in northern Afghanistan.
Abdullah’s timing is notable and may be the result of pressure from his supporters to reject the audit results no matter what. It also comes one day before the 13th anniversary of the assassination by Al Qaeda of northern hero Ahmad Shah Massoud, who fought the Pashtun Taliban. Rejecting the results before they are released would be easier than after, since doing so would cast doubt on their legitimacy. Abdullah told his supporters that “we are the winner of the election based on the clean votes of the people. Fraud, fraudulent results and the announcement of the fraudulent results are not acceptable.”
Abdullah’s timing is notable and may be the result of pressure from his supporters to reject the audit results no matter what. It also comes one day before the 13th anniversary of the assassination by Al Qaeda of northern hero Ahmad Shah Massoud, who fought the Pashtun Taliban. Rejecting the results before they are released would be easier than after, since doing so would cast doubt on their legitimacy. Abdullah told his supporters that “we are the winner of the election based on the clean votes of the people. Fraud, fraudulent results and the announcement of the fraudulent results are not acceptable.”
