Ghani Wins Presidential Election; Abdullah Reject Result as ‘Coup’

Afghan Presidential Election

The Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan today announced that Ashraf Ghani won the second round of the country’s presidential election by a huge margin. The preliminary results show Ghani with 4,485,888 votes, or 56.44 percent of the vote, and Abdullah Abdullah with 3,461,639 votes, or 43.56 percent. The final tally might change when the official numbers come out on 22 July.

Ghani would succeed Hamid Karzai as Afghan president in the country’s first peaceful transfer of power, but Abdullah’s camp reiterated its claim of massive fraud, and rejected the results, calling it a “coup” against the people, putting Abdullah on a dangerous collision course with Ghani.

“We don't accept the results which were announced today and we consider this as a coup against people's votes,” said Mujib Rahman Rahimi, a spokesman for Abdullah's campaign. (Reuters, 7 July)

Officials said, however, this was not the final result.

“The announcement of preliminary results does not mean that the leading candidate is the winner and there is possibly the outcome might change after we inspect complaints,” Election Commission’s chief Yousuf Nuristani told reporters.

File photo: Ashraf Ghani, the winner of Afghanistan’s disputed presidential election. (Tasvir Afghanistan)