Now that Independent Election Commission has announced that more than 90% of votes have been audited and checked and final result is expected in a few days time, the behavior and conflict between the candidates is really disappointing. In situation when the economy is badly shrinking, unemployment is soaring sharply and condition of general public is badly deteriorating, the careless and irresponsible behavior of presidential candidates and their close comrades is adding to the complications in the situation. From their acts and comments, they seem to be absolutely unaware of the miseries of the public and are not ready to give importance to any efforts that might bring an end to this stalemate.

Right from the beginning of the second round of contest, the comments passed by the presidential candidates and their close friends and supporters have added to the worsening of the situation. When the preliminary results of the second round were announced, it was not only the presidential forerunner Dr. Abdullah Abdullah to give his remarks but also a lot many other people from his camp who criticized the role of the Commission, the palace and many other organs of government. We acknowledge the presence of a spokesperson of both the teams of the candidates but it is at the same time helpless and non-professional that so many other people were found busy in giving briefing to the press and addressing the media. Lately, the person who became both famous and controversial was the governor of Balkh province, Ata Muhammad Noor. Mr. Noor is regarded as one of the prominent figures of Jihad who rendered valuable services in Jihad against the Russian occupation. At the same time, he emerged as one of the most active and influential governors of the country by managing and briskly developing the province of Balkh during his tenure. But his comments were received with mixed impressions. Some praised his bold style and statements. The camp of Dr. Abdullah was especially pleased by his criticism of the opponent camp and the government as more or less, similar, thoughts have been expressed by all the members of this team. But he was also a point of criticism on social media websites like Facebook and Twitter and large number of television and radio stations of the country. Being the part of the present government and governor of an important province, he remains the member of the present government and with this position, he should have remained neutral. This is also one of the requirements of constitution and code of conduct of the Independent Election Commission according to which no government official or member should take sides in any form of elections so that the overall transparency of elections should be upheld. The statements of Mr. Noor were also considered to be very harsh and rude and deemed inappropriate for a person who holds such an important position in the national politics. Once, he declared Dr. Abdullah the president of the country and used very harsh language against the president and the Election Commission. He was also the person to talk of civil disobedience against the president and present government, regarding them responsible for the post-election complications.

Though the statements of Mr. Noor were given much media coverage and was the topic of discussion for many days in different mediums of media, there are also present some members from both the camps who should have acted more responsibly. First of all, these statements gave rise to a trend and culture where everyone is found busy in making statements without any proper thinking. Due to this, there also started a trend of cross-comments in which members from both the sides got into a series of making comments without proper consideration. It also shows the lack of central spokesperson concept because, from both the sides, it could have been better if both the candidates had relied upon a central platform to issue any statements. Usually such centralized statements are issued after careful consideration and keeping in view the policy and objectives of the party but when there is not present any such central point of media contact and large numbers of members are found to be issuing statements into the media, so many complications and mistakes can be committed. It is the reason why, the statements issued by different members of the political parties were really different and contradictory and showed complete lack of proper consideration.

These heedless statements have also negatively affected the national solidarity and unity because these statements were issued without considering different cultural and ethnic aspects of these facts. Soon after these statements, there has been the flow of comments from different tribal and ethnic groups of the country. If a group supported these statements due to their affiliation with this group, the members of other group did not support this and there started a war of comments on a number of social websites.

These heedless comments are not only badly affecting the present national solidarity and unity of the country but they have also set an uncivilized and irresponsible culture of issuing statements based on emotions and ignoring the true spirit of clear and clear politics. Both the presidential candidates are hoped to have a look at the situation and immediately issue an order to stop such statements and any kind of press release or statement should come from a single source only that should be issued after thoughtful consideration.