Members of the Presidential Candidate Council at a press conference on Monday urged the Independent Election Commission “to not count the non-biometric votes.”
Rahmatullah Nabil, a presidential candidate, voiced concerns over rumors that one of the presidential runners was planning to instigate a public demonstration demanding the inclusion of non-biometric votes, and alleged: “Money has been given to the district and police chiefs to fill the ballot boxes in their favors.”
“I am also calling on the ambassadors of other countries not to meddle in the election process—the Afghan people will not tolerate it. Some of the embassies have told the IEC to keep the number of the voters to three million,” Nabil said.
Nabil believed if the IEC only counts clean (biometric) votes, the election will go to a second round.
Faramarz Tamanna, another presidential runner, said that members of the Council have concerns about corruption within the secretariat of the IEC, which is close to the Presidential Palace advisors and other government officials.
He also affirmed: “We will not accept any non-biometric votes—none of them should be counted. We also want that the IEC commissioners do their jobs rather than meet presidential candidates.”
“Only one or two million people have voted in the election, so the IEC must quickly let the candidates know the result. If we were to ask school students to do the job, they would finish the vote counting in a day,” he added.
He urged for the quarantine of officials from the secretariat of IEC to prevent them from contacts with government officials to help relative transparency of the election.
Ahmad Wali Massoud, another presidential candidate, also said that the candidates in the Council want changes made to the current “corrupt” election system. And he confirmed, with the others, that the Council will not accept even a single non-biometric vote.
