Afghanistan's presidential election: Ashraf Ghani declared winner - Al Jazeera English

Incumbent President Ashraf Ghani has been declared the winner of Afghanistan's presidential election, almost five months after the voting took place.

The Independent Election Commission announced on Tuesday that Ghani garnered 50.64 percent of the vote in September last year, beating Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, who secured 39.52 percent votes.

The results were delayed after the allegation of vote-rigging by Abdullah forced a recount.

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Thousands of Abdullah's supporters had rallied in November against what they said were fake ballots. The controversial recount had seemed set to favour Ghani.

The two men have shared power over the past five years in a so-called unity government formed by the United States in the wake of allegations of widespread fraud and corruption in the 2014 polls.

The announcement of the election results came as the US and the Taliban, which has been fighting the US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan since it was toppled from power in 2001, appear to be close to embarking on a seven-day "reduction in violence" as a prelude to a peace deal to end Washington's longest war.

The two sides have been wrangling over the US's demand for a ceasefire before the signing of a final peace agreement, which is expected to outline the withdrawal of US troops and a guarantee Afghanistan will not be used as a launchpad to conduct attacks abroad.

The deal also proposes talks between the government in Kabul and the Taliban. The armed group has so far refused to speak to the Western-backed Afghan government, calling it a "puppet regime".

Whether the results will be accepted remains to be seen. Earlier this week, Abdullah's team said it would not accept fraudulent results.

Nearly one million of the initial 2.7 million votes were purged owing to irregularities, meaning the election saw by far the lowest turnout of any Afghan polls.

Ultimately, only 1.8 million votes were counted - a tiny number given Afghanistan's estimated population of 35 million and a total of 9.6 million registered voters.

Ghani first ran for president in 2009, capturing barely a quarter of the votes. He ran again in 2014 in what was considered a deeply flawed and corrupt exercise.

Ghani, from central Logar province, was born on May 19, 1949. He holds a doctorate in anthropology from the Columbia University and first went to the US as a high school exchange student.

Except for a brief teaching stint at the Kabul University in the early 1970s, Ghani lived in the US, where he was an academic until joining the World Bank as a senior adviser in 1991.

He returned to Afghanistan after 24 years when the Taliban was removed by a US-led coalition in 2001.

Ghani was the head of the Kabul University until he joined President Hamid Karzai's government as finance minister. In 2010, he led the lengthy process to transfer security of the country from the US-led coalition forces to the Afghanistan National Security Forces, which took effect in 2014.

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2020-02-18 14:42:00Z
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