The final presidential election results are in over in Afghanistan, and while the contest now goes into the runoff stage the results were really poor for the Islamist hopefuls on the ballot.
Abdul Rab Rasool Sayyaf is a Wahhabist Islamist warlord. Qotbuddin Helal is a high-ranking member of the Taliban-allied insurgent group Hizb-e-Islami Afghanistan.
Together, they just managed to clear 10 percent. Voter turnout was 50 percent higher than 2009, and long lines at polling stations defied Taliban threats.
Abdullah Abdullah, a doctor and former foreign minister, will face Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, a former chancellor of Kabul University and finance minister who is married to a Lebanese Christian, in the June 14 runoff.
The third-place finisher, Zalmai Rassoul, has already endorsed Abdullah.
TOLO News also reported that Independent Election Commission head Yousuf Nuristani said they’re also cleaning house before the next round of voting — firing 3,000 IEC employees because of their “disloyal acts” during the election process.
“We have documents of who was involved in rigging’s and fraudulent acts, they will be dismissed,” Nuristani said.
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