The US and UK embassies, as well as other international offices, have called on Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission to make sure that the valid and invalid votes from the September 28 presidential election are separated, but they have also signaled that the IEC should not be unduly pressured.

The US Embassy in Kabul in a tweet on Wednesday called on “everyone to respect the time required” for the Afghan election organizations to finish processing the votes, saying it is “better to be right than fast.”

This referenced the recent delays of the Election Commission to transfer and process data from over 20,000 biometric devices used in the election.  

The British Embassy in Kabul also tweeted: “Welcome @AfghanistanIEC& @ECCAfghanistan joint statement, especially clarity on validity of votes backed up by biometric devices. Urge all candidates to respect independence of electoral management bodies & allow them time & space to deliver robust & transparent results.”

And Pierre Mayaudon, Ambassador and Head of the European Union Delegation in Afghanistan tweeted: “Reassuring exchange this morning at the @ECCAfghanistan: the two electoral Commissions have agreed on which ballots are valid and will be counted. It augurs well for the impact of fraud mitigating measures. Impartial announcement of the #AfghanElections result is in the making,”

During a Wednesday press conference, Aurangzeb, a member of the Election Commission, stated that "two technical experts will come from the company who sold us the biometric devices, and they will help us speed up the transfer of data," adding "the internet issue is getting solved. We are trying to make the votes clean and announce a transparent result."

Recently the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also hailed the Afghans’ courage for taking part in the elections, but he said that all necessary steps need to be taken to ensure the transparency of the process.