Afghan official accuse US, UN diplomats for meddling in 2009 elections

The former chief of Afghanistan Independent Election Commission Secretariat, Daud Ali Najafi said Saturday that former US and UN diplomats were looking oust Karzai during 2009 elections.

The remarks by Najafi were followed after former US defense secretary’s memoir revealed that US tried to eject president karzai in 2009.

Najafi told reporters in Kabul that former US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Hallbrooke, and deputy UN special representative to Afghanistan Peter Galbraith, were looking to prevent president Karzai to win the 2009 elections.

He said Peter Galbraith called him and warned him not to announce the preliminary elections result.

President Karzai had secured the majority of votes after preliminary elections result was announced, which revealed that 55 percent of the votes were casted for Karzai, while his main rival Dr. Abdullah Abdullah had only secured 28 percent of the votes.

According to Najafi, the second round of the elections were organized due to pressures and political impasse, as the two US diplomats had sworn to take the elections in second round.

The 2009 presidential election in Afghanistan confronted with significant fraud allegations, and the independent election commission officials announced that satisfactory evidences were available which reflected that fraudulent votes were casted in 210 polling stations across the country.

The European Union observers also said at that time that they were suspicious that over 1.5 million votes were fraudulent, with majority of the fraudulent votes belonging to president Karzai.

The electoral complaints commission of Afghanistan reviewed the fraudulent votes, which resulted into second round of elections after president Karzai’s votes reduced below 50 percent.

However, president Karzai’s main rival Dr. Abdullah Abdullah refused to run for the second round of elections and accused senior election officials including Daud Najafi for poll meddling.