Alokozai asks candidates to avoid predicting result

KABUL (Pajhwok): Ibrahim Alokozai, a former presidential election hopeful, on Tuesday said predicting presidential election results amounted to disobeying the law, urged candidates to wait for the election bodies’ decision in this regard.

A week back, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, leader of the ‘Stability and Partnership’ electoral team and First vice president of the ‘State Builder” electoral team Amrullah Salih claimed gaining highest number of votes in the September 28 election and said there was no need for runoff vote.

The presidential election was held on September 28 and its primary result will be announced on 19th of this month and the final result on 7th of November.

Mohammad Ibrahim Alokozai, a former presidential candidate whom electoral team has joined President Ghani electoral team, told a press conference in Kabul that presidential candidates should let the election bodies independently announce the polls winner.

He termed early predictions about presidential election results as disobedience of the law and said the result would be unveiled in accordance with the law and it’ was up to the election bodies and the candidates had no right to predict and bring the national process under question.

Referring to how he joined the ‘State Builder’ electoral team, he said; “I dropped out of my candidacy and joined Ashraf Ghani in order the system is not destroyed and decisions of foreigners are not implemented on us, but I will take position if my decision hurts people.”

About recent allegations of fraud in the election by the Council of Presidential Candidates, Alokozai said some presidential candidates had been trying to use the council for their personal interests.

He did not provide further detail in this regard and said: “Some candidates on behest of foreigners are using the council for their own advantage.”

He urged the presidential candidates’ council not to confuse public opinion and not force investors to move their investment aboard.

He said the Sep 28 presidential polls were successfully held and according to current situation there would be no need for a second round of election.

A day earlier, the Presidential Candidates’ Council accused Ashraf Ghani and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah electoral teams of fraud in the last month presidential election, saying a million votes cast are invalid.

The council members held a joint press conference in Kabul, in which presidential candidates Rahmatullah Nabil, Ahmad WaliMassoud, Mohammad ShahabHakimi, FaramarzTamanna and Enayatullah Hafiz were present.

Presidential candidate Rahmatullah Nabil said that the election was deeply rigged and the electoral team of Ashraf Ghani tried to count non-biometric votes as valid.

“We have obtained evidence that show candidates who used public assets for their campaigns had collected fake votes, now they are trying to use national treasury for creating demonstrations to force the election commission to count non-biometric votes as valid,” he said.

He said leaders of the national unity government (Ashraf Ghani and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah) gave money to governors and police officials of a number of provinces to stuff ballot boxes in their favor.

On the other hand, Yahya Wear, second vice presidential candidate of Noor Rahman Liwal electoral team who was also present in the gathering, urged presidential candidates to show respect to people’s vote and let the election bodies announce the result.

Criticizing the presidential candidates’ council, he said: “The presidential candidates’ council has no national plans for people, that’s why I abandoned them and joined Ghani’s electoral team.”

pk/ma

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