Delay in election audit has negative impact on Afghan economy

Xinhua, Kabul :
A delay in the announcement of the result of the presidential election runoff by the election commission could further put a strain on the already ailing Afghan economy, not to mention its overall impact on the security situation of the militancy-plagued country, observers here said.
Afghanistan’s third presidential election since the collapse of Taliban regime in late 2001 was held on April 5 amid Taliban attacks which had claimed more than 200 lives, but the process went on smoothly. However, none of the eight presidential bets secured more than 50 percent of the votes and thus a runoff was conducted.
The runoff between the front-runners Abdullah Abdullah and his rival Ashraf Ghani was held on June 14 but the final outcome of the polls has yet to be announced.
“The prolonged process of vote counting has already reduced trade and economic activities in Afghanistan and further delay would greatly damage the country’s economy,” Khan Jan Alkozai, a deputy in the Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industries, said in talks with local media recently.
Alkozai said that because of the political impasse, the volume of trade has been reduced, local and foreign investments have decreased, and capital flight from the country has begun.
“The price of property and real estate has fallen. We had bought construction machinery at a cost of 3 billion U.S. dollars three years ago but all these machinery are now idle and rotting,” Alkozai said.
The Afghan election commission on Saturday once again suspended the auditing process of votes after the representatives of Abdullah failed to show up. The audit, which was agreed to earlier by the two rival candidates, was scheduled to resume at 7:00 a.m. Saturday.
An online statement released by Abdullah’s team pointed out that their observers won’t attend the audit process until negotiations with the United Nations and other concerned parties are concluded.