Afghan election result delayed as fraud dispute deepens

KABUL: Afghanistan’s presidential election result has been delayed for several days, officials said Tuesday, as a dispute over alleged fraud threatens to derail the country´s first democratic transfer of power.

The preliminary result of the June 14 run-off vote had been due on Wednesday but was postponed at short notice to allow ballots in 2,000 voting centres to be checked -- throwing the handover process into turmoil.

Abdullah Abdullah, previously seen as the front-runner, has said he would reject the result due to "blatant fraud", while his poll rival Ashraf Ghani said the election was clean and claimed victory by more than one million votes.

The United Nations and donor countries have been trying for months to prevent a contested election outcome, fearing political deadlock and ethnic violence as US-led troops withdraw from the country.

But with the two candidates at loggerheads, many fear the impasse could tip Afghanistan into a risky period of street protests and uncertainty.

About 6,000 voting centres were open across Afghanistan on June 14, when voters defied the threat of Taliban attacks to choose between former foreign minister Abdullah and Ghani, an ex-World Bank economist.

Any tension between rival supporters could ignite ethnic unrest since Ghani attracts much of his support from the Pashtun tribes of the south and east, while Abdullah´s loyalists are Tajiks and other northern Afghan groups.

Ghani´s campaign team criticised the delay in results, but said it welcomed any attempt to prevent fraud in the vote count.

"We believe the election commission should work in accordance to the election timeline and announce results on time," campaign spokeswoman Azita Rafat told AFP.

"If this delay is for the sake of transparency then we accept it, though it runs against the election law."

Abdullah´s team said its boycott of the vote count was still in place.

"The (election) commission has lost its legitimacy for us, and the recount of 2,000 polling centres will not change anything for us," said campaign spokesman Jawed Faisal. (AFP)

Abdullah threatens to reject Afghan election result

KABUL: Afghanistan’s election crisis deepened Thursday when presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah said he would reject the result because his claims of massive fraud have failed to stop the ongoing vote count.

Abdullah´s complaints about alleged fraud in Saturday´s run-off election have thrown the country´s first democratic transfer of power into turmoil ahead of preliminary results due out on July 2.

A smooth election was seen as a key benchmark of Afghan progress by the US-led coalition that has fought against insurgents and donated billions of dollars in aid since 2001 when the Taliban regime was ousted.

But the dispute could trigger instability as NATO combat troops withdraw by the end of the year.

"From now onwards, since (the election authorities) have not responded to our legitimate demands... everything they do and the result of their activities will not be accepted by us," Abdullah told reporters.

Referring to the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and Election Complaints Commission (ECC), he said: "We will not consider these two institutions as legitimate."

Abdullah had demanded an immediate stop to the vote count and the sacking of Zia-ul-Haq Amarkhail, head of the IEC secretariat, over Amarkhail´s alleged attempt to remove unused ballots from the IEC headquarters on polling day.

But the IEC refused his demands, saying it would stick to the schedule in an election that will choose a new president after Hamid Karzai´s 13-year reign.

In a strong statement late Wednesday, the UN mission had described Abdullah´s earlier decision to suspend cooperation with the IEC as "regrettable".

The UN warned that if candidates "abandon the legal process and framework and appeal directly to supporters (it) could incite violence".

"Some people have already called for civil disobedience and some incidents have already taken place," the UN said, calling for the electoral timetable to be followed.

Abdullah took on Ashraf Ghani in the run-off vote after the two came first and second in an eight-man election on April 5, when Abdullah was well ahead with 45 percent against Ghani´s 31.6 percent. (AFP)

Delayed clearances result in loss of 12 mt of coal production

 

The Hindu Delays in environmental and forest clearances occurred mostly in the Bhubaneswar-based Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd. (MCL), which accounted for 10.5 million tonnes of the 12 million tonnes lost.

Around 12 million tonnes of coal was lost due to the absence of regulatory clearances in 2013-14 The Hindu has learnt.

This accounts for nearly 60 per cent of the 19.5 million tonne shortfall reported by Coal India Ltd (CIL) in the just closed financial year.

Enquiries revealed that of the 19.5 million tonnes, five million tonnes was lost due to Cyclone Phailin, two million tonnes due to CIL’s internal reasons, while as much as 12 million tonnes was lost due to delays in environment and forest clearances by the Central and State governments.

Delays in environmental and forest clearances occurred mostly in the Bhubaneswar-based Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd. (MCL), which accounted for 10.5 million tonnes of the 12 million tonnes lost. However, it also occurred in Northern Coalfields Ltd based in Varanasi and South Eastern Coalfields Ltd based in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur.

The single largest loss, of 6 million tonnes, was due to the delay in forest clearance at the Bharatpur Colliery in MCL.

“Since we already had on hand the Stage I clearances, we had expected the Stage II clearance, which is really just a formality, by October 2013. But this came in February 2014. We had environment clearance for 15 million tonnes but we had land only for 6 million tonnes and needed forest clearance for the remaining portion,” a senior official said, who did not wish to be identified.

“In a similar manner, we lost production at the mines of Lakhanpur, also in MCL where we cut back our production from a potential of 40,000 tonnes daily to 2,000 tonnes just because the clearances were not in place,” sources said, adding that nearly 3.75 million tonnes was lost in this case.

Chasing a stiff target of 507 million tonnes in the current fiscal, CIL has decided to pursue the respective State governments for the clearances, which are often delayed due to bureaucratic reasons.