KABUL, Afghanistan: The polling is underway for the presidential election across Afghanistan on Saturday amid fears of attacks from Taliban.
Among 16 candidates, the incumbent Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, the Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar are the most prominent contenders.
In the Afghanistan’s Presidential Election 2019, 9.6 million registered voters are using their right of franchise to elect their next president for a next five-year term.
As many as 49,402 polling booths have been established nationwide, wherein over 72,000 security personnel have been deployed to ensure that the electoral process continues without any untoward incident.
In the Afghan presidential election, a candidate must secure 50 percent of votes to win outright. If no candidate crosses the threshold, a runoff will be held between the top two contenders, most likely on November 23.
This is the fourth presidential election in Afghanistan since the Taliban’s removal from power by a US-led coalition in 2001.
Meanwhile, in compliance with the request from the Afghan authorities, Pakistan has decided to open major border terminals to facilitate the movement of Afghan citizens across Pak-Afghan border, so that they are able to exercise their right to vote during the presidential election in Afghanistan.
