Afghan presidential election, 2014

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5 April and 14 June 2014

2019 →


Nominee	Ashraf Ghani	Abdullah Abdullah
Party	Independent	National Coalition
Running mate	Abdul Rashid Dostum Sarwar Danish	Mohammad Khan Mohammad Mohaqiq
Popular vote	4,485,888	3,461,639
Percentage	56.44%	43.56%

President before election

Hamid Karzai
Independent

Elected President

Ashraf Ghani
Independent

Hamid Karzai
Independent

Ashraf Ghani
Independent

Presidential elections were held in Afghanistan on 5 April 2014, with a second round held on 14 June. Incumbent President Hamid Karzai was not eligible to run due to term limits. The registration period for presidential nominations was open from 16 September 2013 until 6 October 2013. A total of 27 candidates were confirmed to be running for office. However, on 22 October Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission disqualified 16 of the candidates, leaving only 11 in the race. By April 2014 three candidates gave up the race and decided to support some of the eight remaining candidates. Opinion polls showed Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani as the front-runners and indeed the results of the first round election had Abdullah in the lead and Ghani behind him. The results of the second round election would determine the new leader of Afghanistan. The second set of results came after the run-off on 14 June, two months after the first round. Preliminary results were expected on 2 July and the final result on 22 July. However, widespread accusations of fraud delayed these results. In September 2014, the Independent Election Commission named Ashraf Ghani the winner.

The election was the first time in Afghanistan's history that power was democratically transferred.

On 17 July 2013, the Parliament of Afghanistan passed a pair of election laws considered crucial to holding the election on time; President Karzai signed one and was expected to sign the other quickly. The first law to be signed laid out the composition and rules for Afghanistan’s election commission and a separate commission to adjudicate complaints about voter fraud and other irregularities. The other one governed how the vote will be held.

Pakistan sealed its border with Afghanistan during the electoral period in order to reduce the chances of cross-border attacks.

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