Azerbaijan, Baku, August 21 / Trend , E.Ostapenko /
In the presidential election in Afghanistan, the Afghan people expressed their will, without giving a way to threats by the Taliban to be crowned with success, said EU Special Representative for Afghanistan Ettore Francesco Sequi.
"It was a good day for Afghanistan. We confirm that the Afghan people expressed their will, and the relevant institutions organized the safe conduct of the elections," Sequi told Trend by telephone from Kabul on August 21.
If to compare the anxiety before the elections with the fact that people went to vote, we can say that the threat from the Taliban did not succeed, he said.
The results of the presidential elections in Afghanistan held on Thursday are summed up. Despite the numerous threats by terrorists, much more people than expected participated in voting.
Some 50-55 percent of citizens with voting rights participated in elections, the Vice-President of the Afghan Independent Election Commission, Davud Najafi, told Trend formerly.
After the beginning of the U.S. military operations in Afghanistan in 2001, this presidential election was the second. During presidential election in 2004, Hamid Karzai won, gaining 55 percent of votes.
Nearly 40 candidates participated in the elections. In the current presidential elections the main rivals of current state head Karzai are former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzi.
According to Sequi, people went to vote even in the most difficult regions, including Baghlan province in the north of the country, where the situation was very difficult because of serious intimidation of the population.
Militants succeeded to take control over Baghlan province for a few hours. However, Afghan troops resisted the criminals and freed the city.
Naturally there will be complaints about supposed violations, said the ambassador.
"Commenting it now without exact figures is not our work. I believe that before the election, all possible measures were taken to prevent violations," he said.
In this regard, the European Union fully supports the Commission on Claims and Complaints, which will identify violations during the elections, Sequi said.
From August 20 to September 2, ballots papers will be calculated, they will be sent from the periphery to the center, the election results will be summed up. According to the plans of CEC, the preliminary results will be announced from September 3 to 16.
The final results will be published after the conclusion of the Commission on Claims and Complaints. On September 17, the CEC will announce the election results. If no presidential candidate obtains the most votes (50 percent plus one vote from the number of voters), then on the same day, the date for the second round of elections will be announced.
According to Sequi, one of the reasons why the official results of elections will be announced only on September 17 is to give time and opportunity to the Commission on Claims and Complaints to deal with the applications received and make necessary decisions.
It is important that the elections show a real desire of the Afghan people to participate, he said.
"What I saw myself together with my colleagues was families going to vote with children, dressing in the best and planning to hold a picnic after the vote. I think that it is really important," he said.
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