JALALABAD: Leading Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah has vowed to deliver a knock-out blow to opponents in the first round of the election to avoid a repeat of the disputes and delays that plagued the 2009 vote.
Abdullah, who came a close second in the last election, took to the campaign trail with a pledge to disprove widespread predictions that the April 5 poll would fail to produce a clear winner.
“It is different this time from five years ago,” he said on Tuesday during a roadside tea break on the way to deliver a campaign speech to several thousand supporters in the eastern city of Jalalabad.
“I have got confidence that I can do this because of the feeling we are getting from people around the country. My personal strategy for victory is to win in the first round.”
Abdullah, a former foreign minister, pulled out of the second round run-off in 2009 after massive vote-rigging by supporters of President Hamid Karzai, who is constitutionally barred from standing for a third term in office.
“In the last election, President Karzai was the incumbent and much of his vote was because he used state apparatus in his favour. He didn’t really win the election,” Abdullah said.
“Since then I have spent five years in opposition, working for the people and connecting with everyone across the country.”
Abdullah faces an uphill battle to win more than 50 percent of the first-round vote, which he needs for outright victory over 10 rivals including former finance minister Ashraf Ghani, Karzai loyalist Zalmai Rassoul and the president’s brother Qayum.
But he is seen as likely to make it through to a second round run-off scheduled for May 28, with a final result due at the end of June.
Another violent and fraud-riddled election would badly undermine claims of progress during the 13-year foreign intervention in Afghanistan, and donor nations constantly stress the need for a “transparent, inclusive and credible” process.
Abdullah said his biggest fear was “ghost” polling stations -- when voting booths in dangerous areas are stuffed with fraudulent ballots far from the eyes of neutral monitors.
AFP
