Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
The so-called presidential elections in Afghanistan took place on September 28, 2019.
Around 800 electoral centers and one-third of the polling stations were closed because the government was unable to ensure nationwide security in the country. As a result, a significant part of the population had no opportunity to vote.
The media reported eyewitness accounts of numerous instances of irregularities and obstacles to voting and election manipulation.
Many of the polling stations were opened late. The biometric devices did not work at many polling stations. Electoral rolls and the digital lists of the biometric devices were often missing the names of eligible voters. In many cases, the polling station staff had been inadequately trained. According to TEFA (Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan) 88% of polling stations experienced such issues. For example, in a polling station in Ghazni, 2,500 voters tried to cast their votes, but in the electoral roll were the names of only 380 eligible Voters in advance registered. This meant that a large number of eligible voters including women were unable to vote. Several TV channels received from their audiences reports, photos, and videos of mass fraud at the polls. In some polling stations, voters were offered money to vote for certain candidates. In other cases, ballot boxes were stuffed with falsified ballot papers. The biometric devices were manipulated in places. Many voters were denied the right to vote at their polling stations because they did not have a sticker on their identity cards. The introduction of the election stickers as a prerequisite for voting was another act of election manipulation.
The majority of the population did not vote because they had lost confidence in elections because of massive election fraud in the past. Another part of the population did not participate for fear of terrorist attacks on the polling sites. According to September 28, 2019 report in the New York Times, there were 40 dead and 190 injured as a result of such attacks.
The participation of women in the election was quite minimal. Approx. 1,450 polling stations had no female staff. Many women did not vote because they did not want to be photographed.
According to media reports, less than 20% of the 9.6 million registered, eligible voters went to the polling stations. Of these, however, a significant part of the eligible voters were not allowed to cast their votes, as described above.
The number of eligible voters in Afghanistan is approximately 17.8 million. Taking into account these facts, we are certain that the number of people who actually were able to vote in this election was below 1.2 million. Both the low voter turnout and the manipulation described above mean that these elections were not legitimate.
On September 16, 2019, Mr. Tadamichi Yamamato, Head of UNAMA, called for transparent, trustworthy, and nationwide elections in Afghanistan. We have determined that exactly the opposite is what took place during this presidential election.
The Election Complaints Commission has, to date, received over 2,500 complaints regarding these elections. Commission officials said many complaints concerned technical issues with the biometric devices and the incompleteness of electoral rolls. Mr. Chaman-Shah Etimadi, secretary of the Electoral Complaints Commission, said such issues could call into question the transparency and impartiality of the electoral process.
The majority of politicians expressed concern after the announcement of the election fraud. They criticized the electoral commission for the poor organization of this election.
Mr. Ashraf Ghani and his government are using the appearance of democracy to emerge victorious from sham elections and stay in power for another 5 years.
This raises concerns about what the government of Mr. Ashraf Ghani has wrought these last five years in Afghanistan. A second term in office for this government would mean another 5 years of corruption, crime, the violation of women's rights, lawlessness, opium farming, drug trafficking, nepotism, plundering of natural resources, etc.
Mr. Ashraf Ghani is a master at election fraud. He and his government have been preparing for months to manipulate the presidential election in their favor. For these reasons, we did not participate in the election and boycotted it. We will not recognize the outcome of this election.
Best regards
Hayattullah Maiwand
1.Chairman of FDPA