Ashraf Ghani declared winner of Afghanistan presidential election

Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has won a second term in office, officials announced Tuesday, nearly five months after the election was staged.

Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission declared Ghani the winner with 50.6 percent or 923,592 votes. He had more than enough votes to defeat Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, who came in second with 39.5 percent or 720,841 votes.

The turnout for the Sept. 28 election was 1.8 million, 31.5 percent of whom were women.

The 2019 Afghan election underwent a lengthy recounting and auditing process after participants made allegations of fraud.

Abdullah refused to accept the outcome of the election Tuesday, declared himself the winner and promised to form a parallel government.

"The fraudsters are the rogues of history and we establish an inclusive government, long live Afghanistan!" he said in a speech to supporters.

The election results come as the Taliban and the U.S. government reached an agreement this week to reduce violence in Afghanistan. It calls for a seven-day reduction in violence amid talks aimed at removing U.S. forces, which have been stationed in the Middle Eastern nation since late 2001.