Afghanistan Times
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Amid a ragging election crisis, Afghanistan is once again seemed at the brink of electoral violence which itself give birth to the chaos in the country. While Independent Election Commission (IEC) seems to announce the result of the September 28th polls, candidates have warned that announcement sans their demand to be addressed would be a big mistake and will lash-out new wave of crisis. The candidates, who have gathered under a council umbrella, said the polls had sidetracked and the commission’s decisions were not legitimate anymore. They termed it is a package of crisis, and warned that election commission would be responsible for any kind of crisis after the announcement of the results. The protesting contenders talked about crisis—a statement that must be taken seriously. In the face of assurance from security agencies that would not allow violence to undermine presidential elections, but still the threat should not go unnoticed. 2014 electoral crisis is a good lesson to be learned. 2018 parliamentary election was anther devastation of frauds. No doubt that Afghan security forces is a guarantor of peace, but at the same time no one can impose anything that is against the will of the Afghan people. They must prove their impartiality during the elections. They (Afghan security forces) are the true son of this soil, and we, the Afghan masses are proud of them. At the same time, there are protests in several provinces, and they demonstrators accusing IEC for working to a specific contender, and have asked for nullification of 300,000 votes which they believe casted illegally. This is a dilemma, a very serious one. Indeed the stability of Afghanistan and the trust of the Afghans on electoral process and democracy itself are highly linked to the credibility and transparency of the election outcome based on transparent votes. A fair, free and transparent election will promote democracy. What is more important is preservation of over one decade’s gains that must not be lost. To do it, national unity and national harmony is need of the hour. In such critical times, the presidential candidates must come up to the fore to finally find a logical way to ice up anxieties impacting all affairs in the country. Why power transitions should always been fraught. The 2014 handover of leadership may yet prove the most peaceful ever during the history of Afghanistan.
