KABUL,
November 3 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - US-backed incumbent
Hamid Karzai was proclaimed the winner of Afghanistan's first
presidential election Wednesday, November 3, almost a month after
eight million Afghans cast their first ballot to choose their
country's leadership.
“With
4,442,247 legal counted votes out of a total of 8,240,538, Hamid
Karzai has won ... 55.4 percent,” the chairman of the joint
UN-Afghan election commission, Zakim Shah, declared at a ceremony in
Kabul to certify the ballot.
“Therefore
the joint electoral commission ... declares His Excellency Hamid
Karzai the winner of the election as the first elected president of
Afghanistan.”
Karzai
is poised to rule Afghanistan for the next five years.
The
election commission had to assess the report of a three-person panel
of experts, plus the findings of its own investigation into
irregularities, before certifying the election as “free and fair.”
The
expert panel found the poll's “shortcomings” did not affect the
overall result.
“This
was a commendable election, particularly given the very challenging
circumstances,” the panel's 38-page report concluded.
“There
were shortcomings, many of which were raised by the candidates
themselves. These problems deserve to be considered, to ensure the
will of the voters was properly reflected, and to help shape
improvements for future elections.
“But
they could not have materially affected the overall result.”
The
panel was set up by the UN after 14 of the 18 candidates threatened to
boycott the election in the middle of voting over alleged
irregularities, mainly arising from the failure and mix-up of
indelible ink, which was meant to stain voters' fingers to prevent
repeat voting.
Panel
member Craig Jenness, a former Canadian diplomat, said Afghans
deserved to be proud of their first election.
“The
2004 Afghan presidential election was conducted in a relatively calm
and secure environment, with high turnout and much enthusiasm and
substantial participation of women,” he told reporters.
“Many
voters made personal sacrifices and braved difficult conditions to
cast their ballot on 9 October.
“The
Afghan population is justified in the pride it has overwhelmingly
expressed in this election.”
The
report criticized the electoral management structure as
“cumbersome,” saying the several large organizations engaged in
coordinating the voting created confusion and had poor communication.
The
indelible ink mix-up was “due to a lack of communication between
electoral management bodies.”
The
panel also criticized the lack of proper complaints procedures.
The
conclusion of the ballot, was hailed worldwide for its peaceful conduct
after fears of violence, but Karzai's massive victory have been
overshadowed by the abduction of three UN election workers last week.
Annetta
Flanigan from northern Ireland, Shqipe Habibi from Serbia's mainly
Muslim province Kosovo and Angelito Nayan from the Philippines were
kidnapped at gunpoint from their UN-marked vehicle on a busy Kabul
road, just as the end of the count was announced.
A
Taliban splinter group has threatened to execute them unless foreign
forces and the UN quit Afghanistan and the United States releases all Taliban
prisoners.
Shah
said the abduction was “a matter of sorrow for all joint electoral
commission workers and the Afghan nation.”
“They
were guests in our country,” he said.
The
abduction has sparked fears among expatriate workers of Iraq-style
kidnappings in Kabul and could undermine parliamentary elections set
for April.
Saddened
Meanwhile
Karzai was “saddened” by the death of Sheikh Zayed, a statement
said Wednesday.
Karzai
“is saddened by the death of the president and founding father of
the United Arab Emirates,” according to the statement from the
presidential palace.
Karzai
traveled to Dubai to attend Sheikh Zayed's funeral, missing the
official pronouncement of his victory, which had already been known
for more than a week from preliminary results.
Karzai's
campaign spokesman Hamid Elmi called Sheikh Zayed a “close friend of
Afghanistan.”
