Nation cannot afford to be on streets again: Noor

KABUL (HJIA) head Atta Mohammad Noor on Monday said Abdullah should try his luck once again five years later.

Earlier in the day, presidential candidate and CEO Dr. Abdullah Abdullah during a press conference claimed winning the presidential election.

"We have received the highest number of votes and the election will not go to a second round,” Abdullah said.

“The information we obtained about the votes from different provinces shows that our votes are high and our team is the winner,” he added.

On the other hand, Atta Mohammad Noor in a Facebook post today said, “I know failure is very hard, I have also faced many defeats in my four decades of political struggle. It is amazing you say it with a sad face that you are the winner.”

“Please run again for the election five years later for a fourth time and test your luck. The nation cannot afford coming out on streets,” he said.

A day earlier, presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani’s first vice-presidential running mate said that their team received 60 to 70 percent of all votes cast.

Two days ago, Noor in another Facebook post had said “Despite some shortcomings in the election process, we congratulate the Afghan people on their success in democracy, initial results show that one of the candidates is winning and there is no need to go to a second round.”

“Those waiting for a crisis or to encourage people to take to the streets for seeking the CEO post, should rethink because there would be no CEO post in this round of presidency as Afghanistan is passing through a sensitive situation and the people cannot bear more crisis, we hope for peace and stability.”

Noor did not name the leading candidate but he probably pointed to Dr. Abdullah Abdullah as he referred to the creation of crisis and CEO post.

Abdullah in the 2014 election refused to accept the election result that led to the creation of the CEO post and the national unity government.

mds/ma