Afghanistan’s Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) said on Saturday that members of the commission have finalized a decision over the 300,000 disputed votes, and will announce the decision sometime in the next two days.
The 300,000 disputed votes are from over 8,400 polling stations which, according to the Independent Election Commission (IEC), should be recounted.
Previously, the IEC invalidated approximately 86,000 votes out of the 300,000 disputed votes, and also invalidated the votes of 2,000 out of 2423 polling stations that had discrepancies or other issues with the corresponding biometric data, or which came from polling stations without working biometric devices on polling day.
From the total of 300,000 disputed votes, 102,000 votes--according to some campaign teams--were cast either before or after the legal hours for voting on election day.
“We were in agreement on a number of issues--we are satisfied with that… Legal grounds and sufficient evidence exists on which we base our decisions,” said Qutbuddin Roydar, a member of the IECC.
Sources told TOLOnews that the IECC members have finalized their decision on the fate of the 300,000 disputed votes and that the paperwork is now waiting for the signatures by the IECC members.
Some sources, however, said that the IECC has not made the decision to validate or invalidate the 300,000 disputed votes, but will demand more evidence from the Independent Election Commission (IEC).
“Different points of view exist, but not so many as to prevent us from coming to a consensus,” said Mohammad Qasim Ilyasi,spokesman for the IECC.
Daoud Ali Najafi, former head of secretariat of the IEC, said that political pressure may affect the election process.
“The commissioners are linked with the candidates who work for them, and because of that, dissent exists. Everyone wants to make a decision for his favorite candidates,” said Najafi.
Meanwhile, the US Chargé d’Affaires Ross Wilson tweeted on Saturday: “The US donated $29 million to support the presidential Afghan Elections (half the international community’s contribution) because we care – as Afghans do - about the democratic process and the strength of the representative democracy in Afghanistan.”
“Whatever the result, the United States is committed to work with the future government of Afghanistan to strengthen the US-Afghanistan enduring partnership,” Wilson tweeted.