What is vote fraud? In Afghanistan the answer isn’t so easy, and two weeks after candidate Ashraf Ghani walked out on the audit, complaining they were throwing out too many ballots, rival Abdullah Abdullah is now doing the same, claiming they aren’t throwing out enough.
Corruption in Afghanistan is ubiquitous to the point of absurdity, and months after the run-off vote it seems impossible that a satisfying result will come out, with the US trying to satisfy both candidates with a power-sharing deal.
Abdullah had previously released audio evidence of the election commission stuffing the ballot boxes in favor of Ghani, and today issued another round of recordings, including the Vice President ordering vote-rigging in Ghani’s favor.
All of that looms large after the election commission reported Ghani beat Abdullah by a significant margin, despite Abdullah being the overwhelming front-runner going into the runoff.