Two days after Afghanistan’s election commission announced preliminary results for the presidential election that indicated a win for President Ashraf Ghani, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to him over the telephone to wish him and invited him to visit India which he called Mr. Ghani’s “second home”
“Prime Minister Modi congratulated President Ghani on the announcement of preliminary official results of the Presidential elections. The Prime Minister also complimented the people of Afghanistan on the successful conduct of the elections and the subsequent process in face of daunting challenges, which represents the strengthening of roots of democracy in Afghanistan,” said an MEA press release on the conversation on Tuesday.
“I appreciated the Prime Minister on behalf of the people of Afghanistan, not only for being a good neighbour and friend, but also for India’s strategic partnership,” Mr. Ghani said in a series of tweets about the conversation.
The preliminary count gave Mr. Ghani 50.6% of the votes, just above the 50% required to declare a winner in the first round of polls carried out on September 28.
On Monday, Afghanistan’s Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) began a review of voter fraud charges, after which it will decide whether to ratify the preliminary results, or order another round of polling between Mr. Ghani and his closest rival former Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah.
