Wednesday June 18, 2014
Kabul (BNA) The “election” remains as important and prominent aspect of democracy. The election is an alternative paves the way for peaceful transition of political powers as democracy without election doesn’t have any meaning. June 14 runoff election is interpreted as an impartment national electoral event for Afghanistan’s newly planted democracy sapling which could help to institutionalize the culture of democracy in a traditional in our society like Afghanistan. 14 June was the first runoff elections in our political history and this will be the first peaceful transition of political power from one elected president to the other. It is important to assess warning of the surge groups who had sought to disrupt the polling from the angel of their anti-democratic perceptions.
But, the job of Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) in the elections helped the people to vote in peaceful environment and the nation appraised the hard work of their armed forces for making it possible for them to vote. Also the scale of frauds and riggings in the second round of the elections were less compared to the first round, because of, effective monitoring of the process by the domestic and international observers. At the same time, there were a number of criticisms on job of the two electoral bodies of the country after people complained about some particular issues such as ballot shortage and late opening of the polling centers and polling sites in regions across the country. But overall, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) did a good job and the legitimacy and credibility of the process was protected. The European Union Election Observers delegation have warmly welcomed holding of the elections and stressed on the electoral institutions to pursue neutrality and fairness in the elections. EU observers have also called on the candidates to avoid pre mature claims and give time to election commission to complete its job. Two leading candidates have also expressed hope that the electoral bodies will pursue impartiality in the elections.
“Election process must end in a free and transparent manner and election outcomes must be according to the will of Afghan people,” presidential candidates Abdullah Abdullah said. Another run-off candidate Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai also stressed on the electoral bodies to pursue neutrality in the election process. Meanwhile, a number of election supervising bodies have said that the election were held in a good manner this time compared to the elections in the past and large number people voted in the process. Nevertheless, the election supervising bodies have expressed satisfaction over the transparency and credibility of the elections. But, the Afghan people still want the electoral bodies to conduct duties with honestly and impartiality.
