Deal between candidates undermines Afghan election commission's credibility

Afghan presidential candidates Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai on Sunday inked a power-sharing agreement for a national unity government before announcing the election results and thus ending the months-long deadlock.

However, Afghan political observers believe that announcing election results after reaching agreement has damaged the credibility of the election commission.

"Since the political agreement reached between the two candidates had resolved the election deadlock, the election commission has lost its credibility at the eyes of Afghans," political analyst Nazari Pariani told Xinhua.

Afghanistan's third presidential election since the fall of Taliban regime was held on April 5 but since none of the eight candidates secured more than 50 percent of the votes, a runoff was conducted between front-runners Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani on June 14.

Abdullah who secured majority of the votes in the first round of the polls and stood second in the second round balloting had accused the election commission of committing fraud in Ghani's favor and called for votes auditing.

After completion of U.N.-monitored vote auditing and signing agreement between the two candidates, the election commission announced the conclusion of the longest election in the war-torn country.

"Since we Afghans do not have computerized national identity cards, we do not have the statistic of eligible voters, we have security problems therefore it is difficult to have fair elections, " Nuristani told reporters.

He also said the election commission after completion of votes auditing and after reaching deal between the two candidates, the IEC announces Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai as new president of Afghanistan and the end of the election process.

Nuristani also congratulated Ghani Ahmadzai as new Afghan president and Abdullah Abdullah as chief executive, a post equals that of prime minister in the national unity government, agreed upon by candidates.

According to political observers, signing the agreement by the candidates had paved the way for the election commission to announce the election results hours after inking the power-sharing deal.

A university professor Hamid Saboori in talks with a local television besides supporting the deal on formation of national unity government by candidates stated that, "mismanagement and committing fraud in the election process has discredited the election body" saying the election commission needs reforms.