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100s of Afghans protest alleged presidential vote fraud

Iran Press TV

Sat Jun 21, 2014 4:3PM GMT

Supporters of Afghanistan presidential candidate, Abdullah Abdullah, have staged street protests over alleged vote fraud in the country's runoff presidential election a week ago.

Hundreds of Abdullah's supporters protested in the capital Kabul on Saturday against alleged fraud in the presidential polls by the nation's electoral commission, forcing security forces to shut down an airport road amid growing public anger over accusations of vote rigging by Abdullah, who received more votes than all of his rivals in the first round of the election.

The former foreign minister, who is running against Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, a former finance minister, has accused electoral officials and others of trying to manipulate the June 14 vote against him.

'We gather today to protest against the election commission, which is not an independent commission at all. They are conducting fraud for a specific candidate,' said Mohammed Ghani Sharifi, a 23-year-old protester, who added, 'The people are so upset and they cannot tolerate such fraud.'

Abdullah announced this week that he was severing ties with the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and would refuse to recognize any results it releases. He also hinted that the United Nations should step in, an idea backed by President Hamid Karzai, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term.

The IEC's official timetable says initial results are due on July 2.

In response to the protests, which began on Friday, IEC spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor assured the complaints that have been filed will be investigated shortly.

'The election commission is responsible for investigating the complaints and it will happen,' Noor said on Friday.

The Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) is responsible for investigating cases of fraud in the election process. According to officials, a total of 2,558 complaints were filed with ECC following the runoff vote last Saturday.

MFB/AB/SS