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KABUL: A large number of residents of northern Balkh province have staged marches on the streets of Mazar-e-Sharif, the provincial capital city, to protest what they say ‘corruption’ in the Independent Election Commission. Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah’s Second Deputy and a senior member of “Stability and Partnership” electoral team, Muhammad Mohaqiq, who was also among the protestors, have once again emphasized on invalidation of votes, which they claimed are not transparent.
“We don’t accept fraudulent votes and 300,000 votes, which are illegally casted, must be invalided, the protestors demanded.
Mahqiq said that the “Stability and Partnership” ticket would not accept the results of the presidential election if the chaotic and fraudulent votes were not declared invalided.
“We accept only transparent votes, and we are 51 percent winnable in clean votes of people. The fake results and votes are not acceptable,” Mohaqiq added.
Expressing frustration over corruption in the election, he said that ‘they would defend their votes and would not let the repetition of 2014 presidential election’.
“People’s votes, people’s intension, people’s decision is our redline, we will not give up,” said Bashir Ahmad Tayang, a member of ‘Stability and Partnership’ team.
Moreover, Ameen, a demonstrator questioned IEC, asking that why the commission don’t segregate clean votes from fraud, and “why they are making tensions.”
Talking to a news conference in Kabul on Friday night, Abdullah called on his supporters to allow the electoral employees implement the recounting and auditing process—an implementation which had earlier been opposed by him and a number of candidates with blocking of recounting centers in seven Northern provinces. It has for almost two months that Abdullah’s supporters staged protests against the election commission, accusing it of working for a specific candidate. They accused the IEC of working in favor of “State Builder” team, led by incumbent president Ashraf Ghani.
