The Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Tuesday announced wrapping up the vote recount and audit process in 15 provinces, but said the process faced opposition in six other provinces.
Zabihullah Sadat, IEC acting spokesman, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the vote recount and audit process had been finished in 15 provinces and underway practically in another 13 provinces.
He said the recount process had been completed in Farah, Kunduz, Herat, Badghis, Uruzgan, Bamyan, Laghman, Balkh, Maidan Wardak, Nimroz, Samangan, Daikundi, Ghor and Nuristan provinces.
But the vote recount and audit process had been stopped by observers of presidential candidates in Panjshir, Faryab, Sar-i-Pul, Takhar and Badakhshan provinces.
Sadat said the vote recount was underway in presence of presidential candidates’ observers in 13 provinces.
On November 9, the electoral panel started the audit and recount of votes from 8,255 of the 26,580 polling stations to separate fraudulent ballots from valid ones.
The move has drawn opposition from several candidates including Dr. Abdullah Abdullah and Gulbadin Hekmatyar.
However, the IEC resumed the vote recount and audit process across the country on Sunday.
The presidential election was held on September 28. The preliminary result was expected to be announced on October 19 and the final outcome on October 7.
But the results were postponed due to slow data entry and technical problems in the commission’s main server.
The IEC had earlier promised unveiling the preliminary results from the election on November 14 and the final results on December 6.
