Afghan Elections 2014

KABUL: Afghanistan's presidential election is set for a second-round vote, preliminary results showed Saturday, as former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah and ex-World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani both failed to secure a decisive victory.

The vote will choose a successor to outgoing President Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan's first democratic transfer of power.

The eventual winner will have to oversee the fight against a resilient Taliban insurgency as 51,000 US-led troops depart this year, as well as strengthen an economy that relies on declining aid money.

“Based on our results, it appears that the election goes to the second round,” Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani, head of the Independent Election Commission, told a press conference in Kabul.

Abdullah secured 44.9 per cent of the April 5 vote, with his main rival Ghani on 31.5 per cent, according to the preliminary results.

Related: Explore the Afghan elections 2014

The 2009 election, when Karzai retained power, was marred by fraud in a chaotic process that shook confidence in the multinational effort to develop the country and also marked a sharp decline in relations with the United States.

The final official result is set to be announced on May 14 after a period for adjudication of hundreds of complaints over alleged fraud.

As no candidate gained more than 50 per cent, a run-off between the two leading names is required under the Afghan constitution.

Eight men ran in the election, with polling day hailed a success by Afghan officials and foreign allies as the Taliban failed to launch a major attack despite threats to disrupt the vote.

“The election went pretty good, we are satisfied with it and I think we are prepared if it goes to the second round,” Nuristani said.

Another expensive, and potentially violent, election could be avoided by negotiations between the candidates in the coming weeks, but Abdullah has dismissed talks of a possible power-sharing deal.

Ghani has also vowed to fight on in a run-off.

Disputes over fraud?

Serious fraud allegations are being investigated in the vote and Saturday's announcement is expected to be followed by fierce debate over disputed voting papers, ballot-box stuffing and other cheating allegations.

Preliminary results were delayed by two days due to fraud investigations, with officials vowing to sift out all suspect votes before they were counted.

Karzai, who has ruled since the Islamist Taliban regime was ousted in 2001, is constitutionally barred from serving a third term.

He pledged to stay neutral in the election, but was widely thought to have lent support to his loyal former foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul, who took just 11 per cent of the vote.

Rassoul could still play a key role in power-brokering before the next president is chosen, as could former Islamist warlord Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayyaf, who collected a seven per cent.

Abdullah, an ophthalmologist by training who came second in 2009, was a close adviser to the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, a revered Tajik ethnic leader who fought the Taliban during their 1996-2001 rule.

Ghani is a renowned intellectual who energised the campaign with his fiery speeches and is more favoured by the larger Pashtun ethnic group.

The leading candidates have pledged to explore peace talks with the Taliban and sign a deal with the US that could allow 10,000 US troops to stay on after this year on a training and counter-terrorism mission.

Karzai's surprise decision to refuse to sign the bilateral security agreement last year after agreeing to the draft text plunged relations between Afghanistan and its biggest donor to a new low.

The outgoing president has had several public disagreements with Washington in recent years, underlining efforts to establish a reputation as an independent leader despite relying on US aid and military power during his reign.

IEC chief Nuristani, who announced that the second round would be held on June 7, said nearly seven million people voted in the election out of an estimated electorate of 13.5 million – well above the 2009 turnout.

Of those who voted, 36 per cent were female – a figure likely to be seen as a sign of women's improving status in Afghanistan, a deeply conservative Muslim country.

Not the only former warlord among the Afghan presidential candidates, Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayyaf’s bid for the election is, nonetheless, a prime concern for the West, particularly because he stands a good chance of winning it.

After graduating from the Sharia faculty of Kabul University, Sayyaf received a Masters in Religious Studies from the Al-Azhar University in Cairo.

Sayyaf travelled to Pakistan in 1970 and instigated political and military activities against the Soviet regime in Afghanistan.

When Dr Najibullah Ahmadzai’s government collapsed, Sayyad was actively involved in the Afghan civil war which continued from 1992 until the Taliban takeover of 1996.

Following the decline of the Mujahideen-led government and the subsequent rise of the Taliban, Sayyaf left Kabul and became a member of the Northern Alliance resistance. He also served as vice president to former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani.

For the 2014 presidential election, he is flanked by Mohammad Ismael as his First Vice President and Abdul Wahab Orfan as his Second Vice President.

- Research and text by Fatema Imani

Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai was born in 1949 in Afghanistan’s Logar province. He is an ethnic Pakhtun and hails from the Ahmadzai tribe. 

Ghani received his early education from Kabul and then graduated from the American University in Beirut. He subsequently received his PhD from Columbia University.

Ghani is widely known for his global, determined efforts to eliminate poverty. He had been a part of various organisations which aim to improve living conditions. He is a member of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, also the Co-founder of Institute for State Effectiveness and a member of the Board of Directors of the World Justice Project.



He served as finance minister after the downfall of the Taliban in Afghanistan and also worked as a chief advisor to Hamid Karzai. 

Ghani had received accolades from around the globe along with the prestigious Sayed Jamaluddin Afghan Medal, the highest civilian award in Afghanistan. He was also acknowledged as the Best Finance Minister of Asia in 2003 by Emerging Markets.



Peculiar to other candidates, Ghani was among the first officials to unveil his assets upon his return to Afghanistan.

He also contested in the 2009 election but only managed to secure three per cent of the votes – coming fourth behind Hamid Karzai, Abdullah Abdullah, and Ramazan Bashardost.



For the 2014 campaign, his alliance with Abdul Rashid Dostum and selection of latter as one of his vice presidential nominees has landed him in criticism from several quarters. But at the same time, Dostum’s support could lead to substantial electoral gains for Ghani.

Ghani’s other vice presidential nominee is Sarwar Danish.


- Research and text by Sara Alam

Former foreign minister, Dr Abdullah Abdullah is among the frontrunners in the elections. 



Born on Sept 5, 1960 and trained as an ophthalmologist, Abdullah worked in Kabul at the Noor Eye Institute and then at an eye hospital for Afghan Refugees in Peshawar.



He also served as secretary general of the Massoud Foundation, a non-profit organisation named after assassinated Afghan leader Ahmad Shah Massoud. 

As foreign minister, Abdullah promoted Afghanistan at a global level, broadening his country’s ties with the international community.



Abdullah hails from Kabul, with a Tajik mother and a Pashtun father. And while in the 2014 race, he is likely to draw considerable support from both ethnic groups, he has sought to broaden his backing by having Mohammed Mohaqeq, a famous Hazara community leader, as one of his vice presidential candidates.



Although he was foreign minister during Karzai's first term, he decided to stand against the incumbent in 2009. A second round between himself and Karzai was to be held but at the last minute Abdullah pulled out, citing his lack of trust in the Karzai government in holding a fair poll.



His First Vice President is Mohammad Khan and Second Vice President is Mohammed Mohaqeq.

- Research and text by Sara Alam

Defending his name in his election campaign against corruption allegations which were seen in US diplomatic reports in 2012, Gul Agha Sherzai has steadily risen to become one of the prime contenders for the Afghan polls. He was born in Kandahar province, the Taliban’s stronghold in Afghanistan.

He served as a commander of the Mahaz-i-Milli Party’s military wing and was also the head of the unit in Kandahar at the onset of the civil war. He was appointed to the post of the Governor of Kandahar but was toppled from power by the Taliban, following which he escaped to Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan in Pakistan.

In 2001, he returned to Afghanistan as the head of a 3,000 strong militia. With renewed resolve and adequate support, he managed to reclaim his title as the Governor of Kandahar. This feat also marked the first territory liberated in southern Afghanistan from the Taliban’s control.

After President Hamid Karzai ordered in Aug 2003 that officials could not keep both civil and military positions, Sherzai was replaced with Yousef Pashtun as the Governor of Kandahar.

In 2004, he became the Governor of Nangarhar province after having served as a Special Advisor to Karzai.

Currently, he is contesting for the presidency with Sayed Hussain Alimi Balkhi as First Vice President and Mohammad Hashim Zarea as Second Vice President.

- Research and text by Fatema Imani

Born on Sept 13, 1952 in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, Mohammad Daud Sultanzoy is an alumnus of Kabul University. Later, he also won a government scholarship to the United States for pursuing further studies in aviation.

Sultanzoy was a strong opponent of the Soviet regime in Afghanistan in the 1980s and facilitated the escape of many of his countrymen to Germany. He went back to the United States after suffering a war injury and landed a job as a pilot for the United Airlines. All the while, however, he continued to campaign for the Afghan cause.

Following 9/11, Sultanzoy left America and returned to Afghanistan to partake in the new change the country was going through. He was an elected member of the emergency Loya Jirga (grand council) convened in Kabul in 2002.

During the 2005 election, he was elected as the MP of Ghazni province and held the posts of Chairman of the Committee for National Economy, Rural Development, Agriculture and NGOs. He acquired a reputation for being a reformer and a technocrat.

Sultanzoy hosted numerous talk shows on television. At present, he is one of the country’s foremost analysts on both foreign and internal affairs.

— Research and text by Fatema Imani

An engineer by training, Qutbuddin Hilal was born in 1952 in Afghanistan’s Khost province. Hilal went to the Kabul Military Academy and subsequently undertook higher education in construction engineering. 



He worked as an engineer in the planning and designing branch of the Afghan Defence Ministry until 1978.

During the communist regime, Hilal was charged for involvement in anti-state activities and was subsequently imprisoned in the infamous Pul-i-Charkhi prison.

He fled to Pakistan in 2003 after his release and joined the Hizb-i-Islami of Gulbadin Hekmatyar, heading its political committee and also serving as chief of the party’s Paktia chapter.

Hilal filed his nomination papers for this year’s presidential elections in Sept 2013 as an independent candidate and has Inayatullah Inayat as his first vice president nominee with Mohammad Ali Nabizada as the second.

Hizb-i-Islami has announced its support for Hilal.

- Research and text by Nida Mujahid Hussain

Born in 1942, Hedayat Amin Arsala is a trained economist and experienced politician who became the first finance minister in the Afghan interim administration in 2001. He studied in the United States and worked at the World Bank for 17 years before returning to Afghanistan in 1987.

Arsala has held several high offices in various governments in Afghanistan. He served as a foreign minister from 1992 to 1995. He was also an active participant in the talks that led to the Bonn Agreement of 2001 and in the formation of the Afghan interim administration after the fall of the Taliban.

During his vice presidential tenure, Arsala headed several government committees on administration reforms, civil services, census and economic coordination. He was also a member of the National Security Council and served as acting president several times in the absences of Hamid Karzai.

Later on, Arsala was appointed senior advisor to Hamid Karzai and as the commerce and industry minister. In late 2008, he was appointed chairman of the Government Coordination Committee (GCC) and also served as the co-chair of the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board.

Arsala is contesting the 2014 presidential elections with Khodaidad and Safia Seddiqi as his first and second vice presidents respectively.

- Research and text by Soonha Abro

Another former member of the Afghan cabinet, Zalmai Rassoul is one of the three frontrunners in the 2014 presidential race.

Born in 1943 in Kabul, Rassoul completed his schooling from Lycée Esteqlal and studied medicine in Paris. He has had an illustrious career in both medicine and politics.

In the late 1990s, Rassoul worked as director of the Secretariat of former Afghan king Mohammad Zahir Shah.

Rassoul was a signatory in the agreement signed at the Bonn Conference in 2001, held after the Taliban regime was ousted by US and Nato forces. The Afghan interim administration was formed afterwards and current president Hamid Karzai was elected to lead the country for about six months.

Rassoul was appointed national security advisor to Karzai who was re-elected as the head of state in the Afghan transitional administration formed after the Loya Jirga of June 2002.

The former cabinet member served as foreign minister from Jan 2010 to Oct 2013. He resigned from the post on Oct 5 and filed his nomination papers for the 2014 election the next day. He has also served as the civil aviation minister previously.

In the presidential race, Rassoul’s running mates for the vice president positions are Ahmad Zia Massoud (1st VP) and Habiba Sarabi (2nd VP).

His presidential campaign is beset with allegations that he is being backed by the current president. There are also rumours that Karzai is supporting him because Rassoul’s win would mean that the incumbent would have a considerable say in the functioning of the new Afghan government.

- Research and text by Soonha Abro