KABUL, Oct 1 (NNN-XINHUA) – Afghan government Chief Executive and presidential candidate, Abdullah Abdullah, on Monday foresaw his victory in the poll, saying that his election team had secured more votes than his rivals, in the voting held on Saturday.
“Votes cast for us on Saturday’s presidential election are higher than any other in the race. We come with high votes in the poll,” Abdullah told reporters here.
However, he pointed out that the final results of the election will be announced by the country’s Independent Election Commission (IEC).
Abdullah also expressed gratitude to Afghans who cast their votes and hailed institutions and security forces for the role they played in holding the election, amid Taliban threats and intimidation.
According to figures released by the IEC, about 2.2 million voters cast their votes in 3,736 polling centres out of 4,905 where election materials were dispatched.
Over 9.4 million eligible voters registered to cast their votes during polling. Thousands of voters had been deprived of their right to vote, as election workers could not find their names in voters’ registration lists.
Fourteen out of the 18 registered candidates contested for the presidency. Among them are sitting Afghan President, Mohammad Ashraf Ghani.
Preliminary results will be unveiled on Oct 19, and the final results are expected to be announced on Nov 7.
If none of the candidates wins over 50 percent of the votes in the first round, the two front-runners will enter runoff, slated for late Nov.– NNN-XINHUA