Karachi: Afghanistan’s final results have reportedly shown that the nation’s presidential elections will be up for a second-round vote between former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah and ex-World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani on June 14.
The head-to-head elections will declare a successor to President Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan’s first democratic transfer of power and whoever wins the elections will have to oversee the fight against a resilient Taliban insurgency as 51,000 US-led troops depart this year.
According to the Dawn, the elected President will also have to strengthen an economy that relies on declining aid money.
Head of Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission (IEC) Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani said that after a thorough review, it is clear that no candidate has been able to win more than 50 per cent and the election will go to a second round.
Abdullah secured 45 percent of the vote while his rival received 31.6 percent of the voting on April 5, according to the final results, that were released after weeks of deliberation over fraud allegations.
The run-off had originally been scheduled for May 28, but ink and other material was damaged in an insurgent attack on the election authorities’ warehouses by the Taliban, the report added.
