India has congratulated Dr. Ashraf Ghani for being re-elected as the President of Afghanistan. Dr. Ghani won the elections and secured a second term in the office on Feb 18. Afghan media reported that Dr. Ghani won with a significant lead of 50.64% votes.
In a release on Thursday, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) congratulated President Dr. Ashraf Ghani on his re-election following the announcement of final results of the Presidential elections by the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan. The statement further said:
India supports the democratic aspirations of the people of Afghanistan and remains committed to continue to work with the new Government and the democratic polity in strengthening our bilateral strategic partnership in fighting the scourge of externally sponsored terrorism and for an enduring and inclusive national peace and reconciliation which is Afghan led, Afghan owned and Afghan controlled.
India also hopes that the new Government and all political leaders in Afghanistan would work to strengthen national unity, promote inclusivity and protect the rights and interests of all sections of society, the MEA statement said.
The elections in Afghanistan were held in September 2019 amid several Taliban attacks intended to destabilize the election. The results were announced after weeks of assessments by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) after it completed the partial audit of the 300,000 disputed votes. The preliminary results of the September votes were announced in December. Ghani was narrowly declared the winner while Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah got 39 percent of a total of over 1.8 million votes.
However, opposition parties immediately protested the result, threatening a full-blown political crisis on the cusp of a United States peace deal with the Taliban. The IEC conducted the assessments of votes and announced the results earlier this week declaring Ghani as the winner.
