ASIA/AFGHANISTAN - Fr. Moretti: Kabul vote invalidated grave step for the future of the country

Saturday, 15 December 2018 politics   elections   talibans   civil society  

Kabul (Agenzia Fides) - “As yet there are no official positions from the United Nations, or the International Commission , so it is difficult to assess the situation but if the news of invalidity of the Kabul vote were to prove true it would be serious for the future in Afghanistan, which would continue to move in the messy situation as in the past few decades”. Fides was told by Fr Giuseppe Moretti, Barnabite missionary in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan between 1990 and 2015, referring to the decision by the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) to declare invalid the vote in the province of Kabul due to fraud and irregularities in the voting operations in parliamentary elections held 20 October .
“It was foreseeable that there would be vote-rigging. If the news is confirmed the situation would be even
more serious especially regarding Kabul, the city most controlled. Moreover this would close that chink of hope opened by the latest attempts of peace talks, already provisional says the Barnabit.
Regarding the elections, Fr. Moretti says “there are still no official results and probably never will be. Everything is very slow due also to the scarcity of viability and means, which increases difficulties for voters from villages ”.
“According to official news the number of voters was higher than expected despite the threat of violence. This underlines the desire for a growing sense of democracy and responsibility. We should not forget that , Afghanistan is formed of thousands of villages where people are cut off from news and many do not even know who is the president”, concludes Fr. Moretti.
The election was scheduled for 20 October but was deferred to the 27th in the province of Kandahar after a violent attack on the eve for which the Taliban claimed responsibility, in which the provincial governor and chief of police were both killed. The Afghan people are called to renew the Lower House (Wolesi Jirga) of Parliament and will return to the voting booths on 19 April for presidential elections. (LF) (Agenzia Fides 15/12/2018)


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