Presidential elections were held in
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
on 28 September 2019. According to preliminary results, which runner-up
Abdullah Abdullah
Abdullah Abdullah ( Dari/ ps, عبدالله عبدالله, ; born as Abdullah on 5 September 1960) is an Afghan politician who led the High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) from May 2020 until August 2021, when the Afghan government w ...
appeal
In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and ...
ed against, incumbent
Ashraf Ghani
Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai (born 19 May 1949) is an Afghan politician, academic, and economist who served as the president of Afghanistan from September 2014 until August 2021, when his government was overthrown by the Taliban.
Born in L ...
was re-elected with 923,592 votes, 50.64% of the vote. After delays over disputed votes, Ghani was declared the winner in the final results on 18 February 2020.
Abdullah Abdullah
Abdullah Abdullah ( Dari/ ps, عبدالله عبدالله, ; born as Abdullah on 5 September 1960) is an Afghan politician who led the High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) from May 2020 until August 2021, when the Afghan government w ...
rejected the results and moved to set up his own parallel government and separate inauguration.
However, Ghani was officially sworn in for a second term on 9 March 2020.
The ensuing political crisis was not resolved until 16 May 2020, when Ghani and Abdullah signed a power-sharing deal in which Ghani would remain president and Abdullah would lead the peace talks with the
Taliban
The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...
when they start.
Voter turnout was less than 20%.
Background
The elections were originally scheduled for 20 April, but the
Independent Election Commission
The Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan (IEC) was the national electoral commission of Afghanistan, which was responsible for administering and supervising elections and referendums under the Constitution of Afghanistan.
The commissi ...
announced on 26 December 2018 that they would be postponed until 20 July, in order to resolve problems that became apparent during the
October 2018 parliamentary elections. The additional time will be used to verify voter lists and train election workers on the new biometric identification system. On 20 March 2019, the IEC once again delayed the election, this time by two months from 20 July to 28 September. A spokesman blamed the delay on changes in election laws along with management and technical problems − the presidential vote then coincided with local council votes and delayed parliamentary elections in
Ghazni Province
Ghazni (Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in southeastern Afghanistan. The province contains 19 districts, encompassing over a thousand villages and roughly 1.3 million people, making it the 5th most populous province. The ...
.
Electoral system
Presidential elections in Afghanistan are conducted using a
two-round system
The two-round system (TRS), also known as runoff voting, second ballot, or ballotage, is a voting method used to elect a single candidate, where voters cast a single vote for their preferred candidate. It generally ensures a majoritarian resul ...
. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote in the first round, a second round is held featuring the top two candidates from the first round.
Campaign
One of the leading candidates,
Mohammad Hanif Atmar
Mohammad Haneef Atmar (Pashto: محمد حنیف اتمر; born 10 September 1968) is the former Minister of Foreign Affairs and a former Interior Minister of Afghanistan. He was removed from the Ministry of Interior Affairs by Hamid Karzai in ...
, suspended his campaign in August 2019. Atmar's campaign said that the suspension was due to the poor security situation and the ongoing
peace process
A peace process is the set of political sociology, sociopolitical negotiations, agreements and actions that aim to solve a specific armed conflict.
Definitions
Prior to an armed conflict occurring, peace processes can include the prevention of ...
. The Taliban carried out attacks to disrupt the campaign. On 17 September 2019, a suicide bomber attacked the campaign rally of President Ashraf Ghani, killing 26 people and wounding 42. Less than an hour later, the Taliban carried out another suicide bomb attack near the US Embassy and the
Afghan Defense Ministry
ps, د ملي دفاع وزارت
, logo = MOD Afghanistan emblem.png
, logo_width = 200px
, logo_caption = Emblem of the Ministry of Defense of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
, picture =
, picture_width = ...
, killing 22 people and wounding around 38.
Voting
On 28 September 2019, several people headed to cast their vote despite the direct threats to the civilians from the
Taliban
The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...
. However, the turnout was a historical low, where only around 1.6 million showed up from the 9.7 million registered voters. Despite low turnout, voting during election day was described by
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency was estab ...
as being held in a "relative calm" situation, with 3 deaths and 37 injuries occurring due to "small-scale" Taliban attacks.
Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...
also noted that in spite of the low voter turnout, violence was only "sporadic."
However, a tally held by ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', which was based on conversations with local officials, found a death toll of "at least 30 security personnel and 10 civilians", and a number of "at least 40 security forces and 150 civilians" injured—which, according to the ''Times'', was "much higher than the official reports, but in line with the average daily toll of the country’s long-running war." Reports of low casualties were also backed by ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' and
Arab News
''Arab News'' is an English-language daily newspaper published in Saudi Arabia. It is published from Riyadh. The target audiences of the paper, which is published in broadsheet format, are businessmen, executives and diplomats.
At least as of ...
.
Arab News
''Arab News'' is an English-language daily newspaper published in Saudi Arabia. It is published from Riyadh. The target audiences of the paper, which is published in broadsheet format, are businessmen, executives and diplomats.
At least as of ...
journalist Sayed Salahuddin even stated that "the death toll was lower than on previous election days" and that conversations with Afghan residents suggested that "there was less violence than at last year’s parliamentary election."
Salahuddin also stated that "at some polling centers, security forces outnumbered voters."
The election commission also resorted to
biometric voter verification machines for the first time, which took the fingerprints and picture of every voter and recorded the time they cast their ballot. The technical system was opted to combat the growing fraudulent instances during
elections in Afghanistan
This article gives information on elections in Afghanistan.
Though Afghanistan has had democratic elections throughout the 20th century, the electoral institutions have varied as changes in the political regime have disrupted political continuit ...
.
Violence, Taliban threats, and widespread allegations of mismanagement and abuse marred the election. Turnout on election day was low.
Candidates
There were 18 presidential candidates:
Opinion polls
The 2019 presidential election was the first in Afghanistan where opinion polls were funded and conducted by Afghan institutions.
Results
On 27 October 2019
Hawa Alam Nuristani, chief of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), announced that the preliminary presidential election results would be made public on 14 November, and that consultations with the other election commissioners which were taken to make the results more transparent had been completed.
She also stated that the publication of the election results was delayed for two reasons: an attempt to hack the commission's server and the picking of the digital lock of the commission's digital center.
On 13 November, the commission announced that the results were being delayed a second time, indefinitely.
The preliminary results were announced on 22 December, and the definitive ones on 18 February 2020.
By province
Aftermath
The announcement of the results triggered a political crisis. Abdullah Abdullah rejected the results and called for the formation of a parallel government in northern Afghanistan. On 22 February Abdullah appointed a new governor loyal to himself in
Sar-e Pol Province
Sar-e Pol, also spelled Sari Pul (Dari/Pashto: ), is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the north of the country. It borders Ghor and Bamyan to the south, Samangan to the east, Balkh and Jowzjan to the north, and Faryab ...
. American diplomat
Zalmay Khalilzad
Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad ( ps, ځلمی خلیل زاد, prs, زلمی خلیلزاد; born March 22, 1951) is an Afghan-American diplomat and foreign policy expert. Khalilzad was appointed by President Donald J. Trump to serve as U.S. Specia ...
attempted to mediate between Ghani and Abdullah, but the two were unable to reach an agreement and both of them took the presidential oath of office at separate inauguration ceremonies on 9 March, with Ghani being sworn in for a second term.
Shortly afterwards, Ghani abolished the office of
Chief Executive
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
, held by Abdullah, and Abdullah issued a statement saying that "Ghani is no longer president," and his decrees were invalid.
On 23 March 2020, the United States announced that as a result of the political crisis it would reduce aid to Afghanistan by $1 billion. If Ghani and Abdullah do not reach an agreement, it may reduce aid further.
The political crisis was brought to an end on 17 May 2020, when Ghani and Abdullah signed a power-sharing deal.
On 15 August 2021, Ashraf Ghani's presidency came to an end after
Taliban
The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...
entered
Kabul
Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...
during the
2021 Taliban offensive
A military offensive by the Taliban insurgent group and other allied militants led to the fall of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan based in Kabul and marked the end of the nearly 20-year-old War in Afghanistan, that had begun following the ...
and Ghani fled Afghanistan. Vice President
Amrullah Saleh
Amrullah Saleh (Pashto/ prs, امرالله صالح, ; born 15 October 1972) is an Afghan politician who served as the first vice president of Afghanistan from February 2020 to August 2021, and acting interior minister from 2018 to 2019. He ...
declared himself transitional president in
Bazarak
Bāzārak is the provincial capital of Panjshir Province, in the Panjshir Valley of northeastern Afghanistan. It is a small city with a total population of 24,723 and has only three police districts ( nahias). The total land area of Bazarak city ...
, capital of
Panjshir Province
Panjshir (Dari: , literally "Five Lions," also spelled as Panjsher) is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the northeastern part of the country containing the Panjshir Valley. The province is divided into seven district ...
and the last region under government control, however, he was forced to leave after Panjshir was captured altogether by the Taliban on 8 September.
References
{{Afghan elections
2019 in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
Presidential elections in Afghanistan
Presidential election
A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President.
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