J-10
10-21-2004, 12:33 AM
Karzai halfway to victory in Afghan poll, rival to accept result
afgha.com (http://www.afgha.com/?af=article&sid=46659&newlang=english)
Khaleej Times
20 October 2004
KABUL - Yunus Qanooni, Hamid Karzai’s chief rival in Afghanistan’s presidential election, said Wednesday he will accept the outcome, as Karzai swept the country’s south and southeast en route to outright victory.
“I have made sacrifices for the national interests of Afghanistan and I am ready to make another sacrifice,” former education minister Qanooni told AFP.
“Observing the visible fraud in the election, and then respecting the national interest of Afghanistan, is a sacrifice.”
Asked if that meant he would accept the result he replied: “Yes, you understood me well.”
Fraud allegations by Qanooni, the favourite of the powerful anti-Taleban Northern Alliance clique, which dominated the interim governments, sparked fears he would reject the final result and undermine the entire process.
Qanooni alleged fraud occurred before, during and after the landmark October 9 ballot, but he dropped earlier boycott calls after an international inquiry began into alleged irregularities including the failure of indelible ink.
He claimed that pre-poll surveys indicated he should win 58 percent of votes, but with 41.2 percent of the vote counted Wednesday he had only garnered 16.9 percent compared to Karzai’s 61.4 percent.
Karzai is heading for a landslide win in the Pashtun-dominated regions where he is on more than 90 percent in six provinces, according to latest data on the election commission website
The US-backed incumbent had always been widely tipped to win the historic October 9 vote, the only real question was whether he would clear the simple majority requirement of 50 percent plus one.
With half of the required votes already under his belt, outright victory is just days away making a second-round runoff unnecessary.
Based on election commission estimates, around 8,146,173 million of the 10.5 million registered voters cast ballots, so the winner needs nearly 4,075,000 votes to win.
Karzai has tallied 2,041,281 votes so far.
In southeast provinces Khost and Logar, Karzai was scoring 97 percent, in Paktia 96 percent, and 95 percent in Kunar and Nangarhar. In his home province Kandahar, the former spiritual base of ousted Taleban rulers, he is on 91 percent. Overall he is leading in 21 of landlocked Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.
Organisers said they would not declare the winner before all votes are counted and the final results are determined, expected around October 28.
In third and fourth place behind Karzai and Qanooni are two powerful warlords.
Northern-based Uzbek general Abdul Rashid Dostam is in third place with 7.8 percent of the vote, and is leading in four northern provinces.
Ethnic Hazara strongman Mohammed Mohaqeq is next with 7.5 percent and leads in three central provinces where the Shiite Hazara minority dominate.
The only woman candidate, Masooda Jalal, was in equal fifth place with francophone poet Abdul Latif Pedram, both on one percent.
Jalal’s strong showing was unexpected in conservative Afghanistan, where women are still expected to keep a low profile. Under the harsh Taleban regime they were prohibited from working, studying, or being seen in public.
The ballot was the first chance ever for Afghans to choose their own leader after enduring Taleban rule, civil war, Soviet occupation, a Communist regime, monarchies and British colonial rule.
It was hailed worldwide for the massive voter turnout in the face of threats of violence by bitter Taleban loyalists.
The US military, leading an 18,000 strong coalition hunting Al Qaeda and Taleban fighters, said the Taleban suffered a “huge loss of face” in failing to sabotage the poll.
“The Taleban threatened, they cajoled, they intimidated, but when election day came they essentially were absent from the battlefield”, coalition commander Lieutenant General David Barno told reporters.
US-led forces will meanwhile keep up an “aggressive” hunt to ”drive that final deathnail into their coffin”, US military spokesman Major Scott Nelson said.
afgha.com (http://www.afgha.com/?af=article&sid=46659&newlang=english)
Khaleej Times
20 October 2004
KABUL - Yunus Qanooni, Hamid Karzai’s chief rival in Afghanistan’s presidential election, said Wednesday he will accept the outcome, as Karzai swept the country’s south and southeast en route to outright victory.
“I have made sacrifices for the national interests of Afghanistan and I am ready to make another sacrifice,” former education minister Qanooni told AFP.
“Observing the visible fraud in the election, and then respecting the national interest of Afghanistan, is a sacrifice.”
Asked if that meant he would accept the result he replied: “Yes, you understood me well.”
Fraud allegations by Qanooni, the favourite of the powerful anti-Taleban Northern Alliance clique, which dominated the interim governments, sparked fears he would reject the final result and undermine the entire process.
Qanooni alleged fraud occurred before, during and after the landmark October 9 ballot, but he dropped earlier boycott calls after an international inquiry began into alleged irregularities including the failure of indelible ink.
He claimed that pre-poll surveys indicated he should win 58 percent of votes, but with 41.2 percent of the vote counted Wednesday he had only garnered 16.9 percent compared to Karzai’s 61.4 percent.
Karzai is heading for a landslide win in the Pashtun-dominated regions where he is on more than 90 percent in six provinces, according to latest data on the election commission website
The US-backed incumbent had always been widely tipped to win the historic October 9 vote, the only real question was whether he would clear the simple majority requirement of 50 percent plus one.
With half of the required votes already under his belt, outright victory is just days away making a second-round runoff unnecessary.
Based on election commission estimates, around 8,146,173 million of the 10.5 million registered voters cast ballots, so the winner needs nearly 4,075,000 votes to win.
Karzai has tallied 2,041,281 votes so far.
In southeast provinces Khost and Logar, Karzai was scoring 97 percent, in Paktia 96 percent, and 95 percent in Kunar and Nangarhar. In his home province Kandahar, the former spiritual base of ousted Taleban rulers, he is on 91 percent. Overall he is leading in 21 of landlocked Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.
Organisers said they would not declare the winner before all votes are counted and the final results are determined, expected around October 28.
In third and fourth place behind Karzai and Qanooni are two powerful warlords.
Northern-based Uzbek general Abdul Rashid Dostam is in third place with 7.8 percent of the vote, and is leading in four northern provinces.
Ethnic Hazara strongman Mohammed Mohaqeq is next with 7.5 percent and leads in three central provinces where the Shiite Hazara minority dominate.
The only woman candidate, Masooda Jalal, was in equal fifth place with francophone poet Abdul Latif Pedram, both on one percent.
Jalal’s strong showing was unexpected in conservative Afghanistan, where women are still expected to keep a low profile. Under the harsh Taleban regime they were prohibited from working, studying, or being seen in public.
The ballot was the first chance ever for Afghans to choose their own leader after enduring Taleban rule, civil war, Soviet occupation, a Communist regime, monarchies and British colonial rule.
It was hailed worldwide for the massive voter turnout in the face of threats of violence by bitter Taleban loyalists.
The US military, leading an 18,000 strong coalition hunting Al Qaeda and Taleban fighters, said the Taleban suffered a “huge loss of face” in failing to sabotage the poll.
“The Taleban threatened, they cajoled, they intimidated, but when election day came they essentially were absent from the battlefield”, coalition commander Lieutenant General David Barno told reporters.
US-led forces will meanwhile keep up an “aggressive” hunt to ”drive that final deathnail into their coffin”, US military spokesman Major Scott Nelson said.