After the Presidential Elections in Afghanistan, the losing candidate Mr. Abdullah Abdullah accused the other party of massive rigging and refused to accept the results. It was feared that this would lead to violence, as the two candidates were from opposing ethnic groups. As US has an interest in Afghanistan the US Secretary of State intervened and brought both sides to agree to an audit of every single. The audit would take several weeks and would be overseen by international observers and representatives of both parties. It is obvious that the parties agreed to the audit because they were not directly involved.
I am sure this procedure is not in accordance with Afghan electoral rules but to avoid any violence, all parties agreed to this out of box solution in the national interest. In Pakistan PTI has been demanding a legally permitted solution for verification of voters thumb impression in just four constituencies for over a year but neither the ruling party nor the judiciary is interested in resolving the issue which may lead to dangerous unrest in the country. It only strengthens PTI’s claim that the elections were methodically manipulated to arrange results desired by foreign powers.
FAYYAZ UR REHMAN,
Islamabad, July 13.