Afghanistan's Ghani wins majority in presidential elections

Ashraf Ghani

Kabul: Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani is on track to win the second term, after election officials announced he had scored a majority in the presidential polls on Sunday. But despite Ghani's apparent clean win, the fallout from the bitterly contested September 28 election looked set to continue, with top rival Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah saying he would contest the result.

According to the Independent Election Commission, Ghani won 50.64% of the vote in the September 28 poll, easily besting Abdullah, who scored 39.52%. Candidates now have the right to file any complaints they may have before final results are announced, probably within a few weeks.

As soon as the result was announced, Abdullah's office said in a statement he would contest it. "We would like to make it clear once again to our people, supporters, election commission and our international allies that our team will not accept the result of this fraudulent vote unless our legitimate demands are addressed," the statement read.

Preliminary results were originally due October 19 but were repeatedly delayed amid technical issues and allegations of fraud from various candidates, particularly Abdullah. The election was meant to be the cleanest yet in Afghanistan's young democracy, with a German firm supplying biometric machines to stop people from voting more than once.

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