Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated Ashraf Ghani on winning the preliminary results of the 2019 presidential elections in a telephonic talks today, December 24, President Ghani said on his personal Twitter account.
According to Ghani, Modi has also congratulated the Afghan people on holding the successful presidential elections. “India as a friend, neighbor and the world’s largest democracy is fully supporting Afghanistan’s democratic rule,” he quoted Modia as saying.
Moreover, Modi has extended supports for the Afghan-owned, Afghan-led and controlled peace process, adding that India is also with Afghanistan in the fight against terrorism.
As Ghani stated, he has been offered a formal invitation to pay a visit to India. “We will discuss a range of regional and international issues during this visit. I thank the Prime Minister for the invitation and will travel to India at an appropriate time,” the Afghan president further detailed of the telephonic talks.
Although Afghanistan Independent Election Commission (IEC) has yet to announce the final results for the disputed presidential elections, Modi is the first regional leader who congratulates Ghani on winning the Afghan elections.
Nearly three months after the elections was held on September 28, the IEC could announce the preliminary results on Sunday, December 22.
According to the preliminary results, Ghani is leading with 50.64 percent of the total votes (1,824,401 votes) while the incumbent chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, has won 39.5 percent of the votes.
Except Ghani and Faramarz Tamanna, all other presidential candidates, including Abdullah, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and Rahmatullah Nabil, have rejected the preliminary results as unacceptable.
The protesting candidates have one more day to register their election related complaints with the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC)—the electoral body which makes the final decision after adjudicating the complaints.
Abdullah’s ticket have so far registered more than 4,000 complaints with the IECC.
