A meeting of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) with electoral tickets to decide the fate of 300,000 votes, which Abdullah-led Stability and Convergence team wanted to be nullified, on Sunday failed to yield any results as the ticket walked out of the gathering, accusing the election body of trying to validate votes cast beyond the official polling time.
IEC official Mohammad Hanif Danishyar in the meeting shared the reasons for commission’s decision to validate 137,000 quarantined ballots, saying Dermalog, the German company responsible for the operation of the main server of biometric devices used on the election day, has declared the votes valid.
However, he acknowledged that on some occasions election procedures have been violated because of technical reasons or mistakes of IEC employees.
Regarding the votes cast out of official election time, he said due to inadequate time, the software for time sitting of biometric devices was set ahead of election, so they decided on the validity of the votes based on other indicators.
“All the security organizations reported that those polling stations had opened and closed on the due time, so there is no problem with it.
“Observers from electoral tickets, witnesses, and representatives of the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission were present in those polling booths. We carried out an audit and everything is documented in our legal journal. The results sheets have been signed by observers of watchdogs and candidates.”
However, Asadullah Saadati, first running mate of Abdullah Abdullah, said the validation of votes cast out of official polling time and quarantined ballots was a violation of the procedures approved by IEC and an electoral crime. The meeting ended without any result after Saadati was prevented from speaking.
Later on, he told journalists that IEC did not listen to their words and did not want the meeting to yield any results. He also accused the IEC of selective behavior in inviting political parties’ representatives to the meeting.
Afghanistan presidential elections, after a several delays, were held on September 28, but the results have not been announced in two months after the election day.
