India refrains from commenting on charges in Afghan Presidential poll

NEW DELHI: Amid allegations of rigging in the Afghan Presidential polls, India today refrained from commenting on the charges and said it was monitoring the political developments in the war-torn country.

"We are aware of the preliminary announcements in this regard. We understand that both candidates have filed their respective complaints under existing electoral provisions," the Spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry said.

He added that it is now for the Afghan electoral institutions to assess the complaints and then make their final announcements.

"There will always be a winner and loser in an election process. But we are confident that the Afghan leadership cutting across party lines knows that while winning an election requires simple arithmetic majority, running a country requires inclusiveness and an ability to carry everyone along," he said.

The Independent Election Commission announced yesterday that according to preliminary results, Ashraf Ghani won the June 14 second round with 56.44 per cent of the vote.

However, Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah's camp has termed these results as a "coup" against the people.

The final official numbers will come out on July 22.