KABUL – Tens of Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Kabul City on Friday marching alongside Abdullah Abdullah in protest of frauds that took place in the presidential runoff elections.
Several roads in Kabul have been blocked as the demonstrators advance toward the Presidential Palace chanting, “we want our votes, our votes are our dignity, down with frauds” calling on the government to invalidate the rigged votes.
Protests have begun in several areas of Kabul City that are joined by Dr. Abdullah and his running mates, the High Peace Council Chair, Salhuddin Rabbani, Mahmoud Karzai—brother of President Hamid Karzai—and Amrullah Saleh Saleh, former Afghan intelligence chief.
Thus far, there have been no reports of security threats. The demonstration is continued peacefully as slogans such as “we want riggers to surrender to the law,” “traitors must be tried,” and “Karzai must fear from the anger of the nation.
because the source of frauds and violations is Karzai himself” were echoed throughout Kabul.
Protestors are marching down the roads of Kabul City chanting, “our votes must be respected,” “death to those who committed fraud in the election process,” and “our beloved president is Abdullah Abdullah.”
Meanwhile, a number of demonstrators in northern Balkh province rallied demanding for a transparent result.
A Balkh protestor said that they “are asking the election commission(s) to separate the fraudulent votes from the clean votes that the people had cast. The process should be transparent.”
The demonstration comes as Dr. Abdullah’s electoral campaign team released an audiotape and video footage of fraudulent acts to the media on Thursday.
The audiotape revealed Maidan Wardak provincial governor, Attaullah Khogyani persuading an unknown “army officer” not to prevent ballot stuffing in the June 14 runoff.
Khogyani was not immediately available for comment.
The video footage, which was also released on Thursday, showed men in a room in eastern Paktika province, as Abdullah’s team described, stuffing ballot boxes for Dr. Ahmadzai.
Just last week, Dr. Abdullah’s electoral team revealed an unverified audiotape of Afghanistan’s Chief Electoral Officer, Zia-ul-Haq Amarkhail, who has conversations with his provincial staff asking them to stuff ballot boxes.
Amarkhail, who resigned from his post the day after, said the tapes were forged. (Tolonews)