|
 The audit of the June 14 run-off election was part of a
U.S.-brokered deal to defuse escalating tension in a ballot intended
to mark the country's first democratic transfer of power.
Chaos in Afghanistan as Western forces pull out most of their troops
would be a political blow for those countries which have spent
billions of dollars and lost about 3,500 soldiers in a bid to bring
peace and stability since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.
"The auditing and recount process of all votes were concluded late
on Thursday," Independent Election Commission (IEC) spokesman Noor
Mohammad Noor told reporters in Kabul.
"It was a very important mission by the IEC and other major
institutions which is finished now," Noor said.
The IEC has already begun invalidating votes deemed fraudulent, but
it was unclear when the final results of the audit - and the next
president of Afghanistan - would be announced.
Preliminary results from the run-off put candidate Ashraf Ghani, a
former finance minister and World Bank official, well ahead of his
rival Abdullah Abdullah, a former foreign minister.
But Abdullah rejected the result, claiming widespread fraud and
calling the outcome a "coup" against the Afghan people.
Since then, U.S. State Secretary John Kerry has flown to Afghanistan
twice to mediate a deal in which both candidates agreed to a full
audit of the vote, and, based on the result, to form a national
unity government, a pledge the contenders reiterated in a joint
statement on Thursday to a NATO summit.
The crisis over the outcome of the vote has raised the specter of
instability, turmoil and potential conflict in a country already
battling a potent Taliban insurgency.
[to top of second column]
|
The seven-week audit, a painstaking exercise involving more than 8
million votes, was slow-going at times, punctuated by heated
arguments between the two candidates' observers present during the
process.
In late August, Abdullah's team boycotted the audit, calling it
"worthless" in the face of what they have alleged to be widespread
fraud in the June vote.
The United Nations subsequently asked Ghani's team to withdraw its
observers too, in the interest of fairness. The audit proceeded in
its final week with Afghan and international observers present.
Both candidates' camps said talks on the national unity government
were going on, though details of what that government might look
like remained murky.
President Hamid Karzai urged the candidates to reach a final
agreement at the soonest so "the Afghan nation would wait no longer
in uncertainty for the new president," Karzai's office quoted him as
saying in a September 3 statement.
"I will endorse any final agreement reached in this regard between
the two sides," he said.
(Editing by Krista Mahr and Robert Birsel)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
