03:23Afghanistan: Hezb-e-Islami's Gulbuddin Hekmatyar denounces election fraud
Head of the Hezb-e-Islami party and Afghan Presidential candidate Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, cast his ballot amid the country's presidential elections in Kabul, on Saturday, taking the opportunity to denounced his opponents Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah of fraud.
"We are in opposition of the two government teams. They have used the governmental facilities for their campaigns. They have paid embassies, ministries, departments and so on. They were in opposition of each other in the past election too, and they blamed each other for two million fake votes. You have seen that both failed, which caused a critical situation for Afghanistan," said Hekmatyar, adding that "you can see, all the problems we suffered are because of these two candidates."
"Today we are back because of this government, which has not happened in the past years. They are going to commit fraud in the election, even I received many reports that fraud is ongoing in many provinces. They unsecured those places which are secured because they do not have followers there," the Presidential candidate said.
"The ballots are being stuffed with fake votes. All of the governors, commanders, chief departments are their campaigners. They have ordered the people to make votes for them. The ballots were being stuffed last night in many places," he added.
Afghan security forces are on high alert since Friday as the run up to the election has been plagued by violence, with the Taliban carrying out two deadly suicide bombings on September 17 and threatening to attack polling stations.
The 2019 presidential election is the country's fourth poll since US-led forces toppled the Taliban government in 2001. Around 9.6 million people, roughly a third of them women, have reportedly registered to vote, but around one in twelve polling centres may not open due to safety concerns.
03:23Head of the Hezb-e-Islami party and Afghan Presidential candidate Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, cast his ballot amid the country's presidential elections in Kabul, on Saturday, taking the opportunity to denounced his opponents Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah of fraud.
"We are in opposition of the two government teams. They have used the governmental facilities for their campaigns. They have paid embassies, ministries, departments and so on. They were in opposition of each other in the past election too, and they blamed each other for two million fake votes. You have seen that both failed, which caused a critical situation for Afghanistan," said Hekmatyar, adding that "you can see, all the problems we suffered are because of these two candidates."
"Today we are back because of this government, which has not happened in the past years. They are going to commit fraud in the election, even I received many reports that fraud is ongoing in many provinces. They unsecured those places which are secured because they do not have followers there," the Presidential candidate said.
"The ballots are being stuffed with fake votes. All of the governors, commanders, chief departments are their campaigners. They have ordered the people to make votes for them. The ballots were being stuffed last night in many places," he added.
Afghan security forces are on high alert since Friday as the run up to the election has been plagued by violence, with the Taliban carrying out two deadly suicide bombings on September 17 and threatening to attack polling stations.
The 2019 presidential election is the country's fourth poll since US-led forces toppled the Taliban government in 2001. Around 9.6 million people, roughly a third of them women, have reportedly registered to vote, but around one in twelve polling centres may not open due to safety concerns.