The Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Thursday announced that it had begun implementing the decisions of the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) regarding the special audit of 239,000 disputed votes.
However, an official from the IEC later said that the process was halted swiftly after the IECC officials left the IEC headquarters. It was not clear why the process stopped, and officials could not be reached for comment on Thursday night.
“We have started our program and our investigations,” said Habiburrahman Nang, head of the IEC secretariat.
“In all provinces, they (IEC) need to apply those procedures which are included in their working procedures. In all provinces, the ballot boxes should be opened and must be recounted,” said Younus Tughra, member of the IECC.
The independent election observers have called on the election bodies to make sure that they act in a way that is satisfactory to all of the parties involved in the election process.
“We hope that the process is moved forward in line with the election law and its procedures so that the result is acceptable to parties involved in the elections,” said Sumaira Rasa, spokeswoman to Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan (FEFA).
“The process of implementation of the IECC’s decisions is moving forward at a slow pace. I think if this situation continues, we will waste a lot of time,” said Ajmal Hoodman, a member of Ashraf Ghani's State Building team.
“The election commission did not inform us about taking the samples of the votes,” said Noor Rahman Akhlaqi, a member of Abdullah-led Stability and Convergence team.