Discussions at the Independent Election Commission, or IEC, are underway to prepare the announcement of the election’s preliminary results, following the recount of votes in 27 out of 34 provinces. Details about the announcement will be made this evening, Commissioner Esmatullah Mal confirmed.

The election commission has recounted votes from over 7,000 polling stations in 27 provinces out of a total of 8,300 polling stations in 34 provinces. In seven provinces, supporters of some election campaign teams have prevented the recounting process.

“They (the commissioners) are working on a detailed report,” the head of the IEC secretariat Habib-Ur-Rahman Nang said.

Some former IEC officials said the commission should first address concerns around the electoral process ahead of announcing the results.

“Announcing the results ahead of addressing the complaints of the electoral teams will bring a crisis to Afghanistan,” said the former head of the IEC secretariat, Abdullah Ahmadzai.

“Any response which is based on the regulations should be made public in front of observers and the media so that we can see that the (election) commission is working professionally,” said Mohammad Yusuf Rasheed, head of the Free and Fair Election Commission of Afghanistan.

This follows a protest in Kabul organized by presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah’s campaign team calling for transparency in the vote recount process. The protesters warned the commission to not announce the preliminary results before invalidating the 300,000 disputed votes.