In Afghanistan, less than 25% of the people voted, which is lower than the last three presidential elections.
Kabul … News Time
Presidential elections under the influence of fraud, attacks on the election campaign and Taliban threats in the Afghan electoral process have resulted in lower voter turnout than in the past. According to the news agency AFP, the first phase of the presidential election 2019 was completed yesterday, with the election of the president for the next five years. In the presidential election, there is a contest between the current president Ashraf Ghani and the country’s chief executive Abdullah Abdullah. War-torn Afghanistan is a population of 30 million people, where 96 million people have registered as voters. As many as 4,900 polling stations were set up across the country. In this regard, the Election Commission of Afghanistan cites preliminary data, saying that statistics come from half the polling stations established across the country. That just 11 million people exercised their right to vote. He added that if the turnout ratio remained the same, it would mean that less than 25% of the people voted, which is lower than the last three presidential elections. The overall turnout in the 2014 presidential election was 50%, it said.
Afghan officials, on the other hand, declared holding the presidential election a defeat for the Taliban because the Taliban could not launch a major offensive. In addition, according to the Afghanistan Analyst Network, more than 400 attacks were reported across the country during the election process. The Taliban claimed that they carried out 531 attacks, while the Interior Ministry reported that the enemy carried out 68 violent attacks. Although officials say that 5 security forces personnel were killed in various attacks in the presidential election, such examples have been found in the past. In which the authorities did not disclose the number of casualties on Election Day, when the facts came to light later, the number of attacks and casualties was much higher. It should be noted that despite the dangers of Taliban attacks in war-torn Afghanistan, polling for the presidential election began at the scheduled time, which continued unabated until 7pm after a 2-hour extension. On the other hand, at least two people were killed and more than 27 were injured as a result of the bombings at polling stations in Kabul, Jalalabad and other areas including Kandahar.
The Election Commission of Afghanistan has said that the preliminary results of tomorrow’s presidential election will be announced before October 18. Maulana Abdullah, a commissioner of the Election Commission, said that the Election Commission was busy in drawing conclusions. According to a report by the news agency “AP”, the final results of the election will come out on November 7. It is to be noted that the population of Afghanistan is more than 30 million. You must be 18 years old to vote in Afghanistan. According to Qatar’s broadcasting agency Al Jazeera, the overall turnout will be less than 25% if the results remain the same. That would be the lowest turnout in the four presidential elections since the 2001 Taliban regime ended.
The last presidential election was held in 2014, the Al Jazeera report said. At that time there were 10 million registered voters in the country, of which 60% used voting and more than 70 million people voted. Election observers say there are several reasons for the decline in voting turnout, including the general public situation, Afghan peace talks, underestimating the importance of the elections and fraud in the 2018 parliamentary elections are the top charges. It should be noted that there were a total of 14 candidates in the polls, but the current president Ashraf Ghani, chief executive Abdullah Abdullah and former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar are being considered important. The UN mission in Afghanistan has said that all parties should be responsible for the post-election period. The Mission has also urged the electoral institutions to complete the counting of votes and other tasks within the stipulated time.
