Officials from the Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Wednesday announced they are nearly done with the recount of votes in seven provinces, and said that the calls for a new recount of votes in the previously-counted 27 provinces is not practical.
This comes a day after the Solidarity and Convergence team led by presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah announced that it will not accept the election results unless the IEC undertakes to recount votes in the 27 provinces that it had already completed without the presence of Abdullah’s observers.
The commission meanwhile said that the recount process has been completed in Panjshir, Jawzjan, Sar-e-Pul, Takhar, Faryab and Badakhshan provinces and that it will complete the process for three other provinces in the next two days.
The recount province in Baghlan will be completed by the end of the day, said the IEC.
“Materials will arrive from Badakhshan and Faryab provinces to Kabul today if the weather is suitable. The recount is underway as normal in Baghlan province. Our colleagues are committed to complete the process tomorrow if there are no any obstructions by the electoral teans,” said Habiburrahman Nang, head of the IEC secretariat.
But, the presidential candidates who obstructed the recounting in seven provinces have been saying that the election commission should restart the recount in the presence of their observers.
“I don’t think that there is time for a renewed recount in the 27 provinces, if they (electoral tickets) insist on their stance, we will see a new wave of brawls between the election commission and the election campaigns,” said Adili, an electoral expert.
“It will not be appropriate to go again for a recount in 27 provinces, because the recount process has already been carried out by the election commission and we do not want see the process be in the hand of the election commission; now it is the time that they hand over the process to the electoral complaints commission,” said Sumaira Rasa, spokesperson for the Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan (TEFA).
The commission has said that it will announce the election results sometimes next week.
