Voting for Presidential Election completed in Afghanistan

The counting of the votes has been started after the completion of the voting in Afghanistan. The result of the presidential election is expected to be announced on October 17. The voting was started at 7:00 am (Afghanistan Standard Time). The voting was to be ended at 3:00 pm but the Election Commission of Afghanistan extended the deadline for two hours. The polling was stopped at 5:00 pm after the decision of the Election Commission.

The initial results will be announced on October 17, 2019, according to the Election Commission of Afghanistan. 14 candidates participated in the presidential elections including Ashraf Ghani, the president of Afghanistan, Abdullah Abdullah, the chief executive of Afghanistan, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Ghani, Abdullah, and Hekmatyar cast their vote in Kabul.

The total registered voters for the presidential election were 9600000. The total number of polling stations for the registered voters were 5373. The security was high alerted due to the threats given by the Taliban. The trucks, of any type, were not allowed to enter Kabul. The voter turnout was low in the presidential elections. The number of women voters declined as compared to the past elections.

The Afghan presidential election contains two phases. If one presidential candidate does not get 51% votes in the first phase then top two candidates compete in the second phase. If a candidate gets 51% votes in the first phase then he becomes the president without going into the second phase. Taliban released a statement in which it gave threats of carrying out attacks during the voting. The Afghan security forces took strong security measures.

It was noticed that the voter turnout remained low in the current election as compared to the past elections. President Ghani and the chief executive Abdullah are the strong competitors in the current elections. The results are expected to be announced on October 17. The counting of the votes has been started after the completion of polling.