The head of the Independent Election Commission, Hawa Alam Nuristani, said during a Saturday press conference that the vote recount and auditing process will resume in the remaining provinces on Sunday.

Nuristani said that the Independent Election Commission “agreed” with the candidates protesting the process.

Nuristani mentioned that members of the IEC held “technical meetings” with representatives of the candidates opposing the recount, and they discussed the controversial points.

The recount of approximately 8,000 votes reportedly began last week ago but was stopped by the IEC on Wednesday after being opposed by many electoral teams.

The teams of Abdullah Abdullah, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Rahmatullah Nabil, as well as the Presidential Candidates Council, boycotted the recount process.

The candidates argued that a group of 300,000 tallied votes were not biometrically approved, and should not be included in the recount process.

IEC chairwoman Nuristani stated today that only biometric votes are valid for the IEC.

Nuristani thanked the nation for their patience with the delay of the election results announcement.

The audit and recount process—and the electoral teams’ opposition to the process—are some of the reasons for the delay in announcement, Nuristani said during the press conference.

The preliminary results have so far been delayed three times.

The head of the IEC, however, insisted that the preliminary result of the election would be announced "as soon as possible" after the recount and audit process had ended.