Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

Losers Want Election Results Nullified

Losers Want Election Results Nullified

KABUL - Some losing candidates on Thursday called for nullifying results from last year's parliamentary election, saying the ongoing controversy should be referred to the International Court of Justice. "We don't accept the poll results because Afghans were not allowed to elect their representatives, who were chosen through fraud and irregularities," Amina Mujahid, a female candidate from the southern Ghazni province, told a news conference in Kabul.

The deepening political crisis would have a negative impact on the lives of people, warned Bashir Hatif, another candidate. He believed that the December 5 Bonn conference would yield no breakthrough.

He said the crisis could not be resolved with the replacements of nine sitting MPs. The only solution to the problem was to nullify the results and punish those responsible for irregularities and fraud.

President Hamid Karzai inaugurated the new Parliament on Jan. 26, 2011, ending weeks of a political deadlock. The Attorney General's Office invalidated some poll results. A five-judge special court was set up in December 2010 to look into allegations of rigging in the vote.

On June 23, the court ruled that rigging had occurred in 33 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces. It disqualified 62 of the 249 MPs, nearly a quarter of the lower house, on the basis of a vote recount.

On Sunday, the Independent Election Commission ('IEC) disqualified nine sitting MPs in favor of candidates previously certified as having lost the 2010 parliamentary election.

On Wednesday, the commission granted Parliament membership to the nine candidates who were declared winners. However, the ""'Wolesi Jirga rejected the decision as illegal and unconstitutional.