Ahadi: Disqualification politically motivated

KABUL): A disqualified presidential candidate, Anwarul Haq Ahadi, the former commerce minister, on Thursday said his removal from the Independent Election Commission’s preliminary list was politically motivated.

“All decisions taken by the Independent Election Commission have not been fair and transparent. There were political reasons behind my disqualification,” Ahadi told a press conference in Kabul.

The Afghan Millat Party leader said he had submitted to the IEC more than 155,000 voter cards of his supporters across the country, but even then the IEC rejected him by acting unfairly.

Ahadi said he was ready to prove the voter cards he had submitted with the IEC were accurate in the presence of media, civil society groups and the public.

 “There are some circles who do not want me to be part of the electoral race,” said Ahadi, who did not name anyone. To a question in this regard, he said: “I know who they are, but I would not name them, pending a court approval of the documents he possess in this regard.”

The disqualified candidate said fair and free elections were not possible under the incumbent leadership of the IEC and the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC).

Officially ending his presidential campaign, he said the upcoming elections would be the worst rigged, compared to the past and the next would be more unfair.

“Instead of moving forward towards a real democracy, we are going to embrace dictatorship and a symbolic democracy.”       

Another rejected candidate, Sarwar Ahmadzai, told the same press conference, there were some circles, which had been interfering in the decision-making prcess of the two electoral bodies.

He said the decisions announced by the IEC and ECC had not been taken by the bodies themselves.

But IEC deputy chief Abdul Rahman Hotak said the commission had been independent in making its decisions and had been honest throughout the investigation process. He said there had been no pressure on the IEC in making its decisions.

The number of presidential runners has gone up to 11 with the addition of Daud Sultanzoy, who had been previously removed from the initial list. Announcing the final list on Tuesday, the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) said the addition came in the wake of thoroughgoing investigations into objections.

The watchdog had started investigating complaints against presidential and provincial council runners soon after the release of the preliminary list of poll contestants. The process came to an end on Monday evening — two days behind schedule. 

Abdul Sattar Sadat, the watchdog’s head, told a news conference in Kabul on Tuesday there had been no other change in the preliminary list of candidates issued by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Oct. 22.

The final list include Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, Abdur Rab Rassoul Sayyaf, Qutbuddin Hilal, Abdul Rahim Wardak, Dr. Ashraf Ghani, Dr. Zalmay Rassoul, Sardar Mohammad Nadir Naeem, Qayyum Karzai, Hidayat Amin Arsala, Gul Agha Sherzai and Sultanzoy.

Anwarul Haq Ahadi, Syed Ishaq Gilani, Bismillah Sher, Fazal Karim Najimi, Hashmat Ghani Ahmadzai, Sarwar Ahmadzai, Hamidullah Qadiri, Azizullah Ludin, Salman Ali Dostzada, Farooq Azam, Khadija Ghaznavi, Abdul Hadi Dabir, Noor Rahman Lewal, Dawar Ahmad Naderi and Nader Shah Ahmadzai have been disqualified.

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