Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission says it invalidated votes from 1,179 polling stations in the recount and audit process.
They are among 2,423 polling stations which were reported open on election day, but did not send any results, biometric devices or biometric data or only sent the results but no biometric devices/memory cards and biometric data.
Earlier, some candidates criticized the IEC for including the 2,423 polling stations in the recount, claiming it was against electoral laws and procedures.
IEC in a statement said that for the commissioners, only those votes are valid that are supported by biometric verification. It said that IEC was not making partisan decisions.
IEC had started recounting 8,531 votes from problematic polling stations on November 9, but the process has been boycotted by several candidates.
The commission said that it completed the process in 24 provinces and urged electoral teams to allow the process in seven provinces, where they have shut its offices.
This comes as IEC warned on Saturday that if the electoral teams continue to oppose the recount process, the commissioners will call for government intervention.
According to IEC officials, provincial offices are currently closed in seven provinces because of boycotting election team members. Some election tickets closed the IEC’s provincial offices in Faryab, Sar-e Pol, Jawzjan, Badakhshan, Panjshir, Baghlan and Takhar provinces. The IEC says the offices were closed by Abdullah Abdullah’s electoral team in protest of the recount.
“If this problem is not resolved, we will resort to constitution and the IEC mandate that allow us to ask for government cooperation to implement the election process in seven provinces,” said Mirza Mohammad Haqparast, the IEC spokesman.
Afghanistan held its fourth presidential election since Taliban ouster in 2001 on September 28, but its results have not be announced so far due some technical glitches and fraud accusations. IEC has so far missed at least two deadlines for primary results announcement, and failed to announce a new timeline for the election outcome.
