The Independent Election Commission on Wednesday said the announcement of the preliminary presidential polling results will once again be postponed.
Aurangzib, an IEC commissioner, said the announcement originally scheduled for Thursday, November 14, must be pushed farther out due to “tensions” hindering the vote recounting process at “8,000 polling stations.”
“We are striving to announce a transparent result that should be acceptable to the people of Afghanistan,” he said.
IEC spokesman Aziz Ahmad Ibrahimi said the vote recount was halted across Afghanistan to address the complaints of the candidates, and that “the recounting process has temporarily stopped across the country until next guidance,” he said.
On Tuesday, IEC chairwoman Hawa Alam Nuristani said in a press conference that some election campaign teams had prevented the vote recount process in 15 provinces.
Nuristani asked for “patience” from presidential candidates who opposed the vote recount, which began on Nov. 9.
The votes of “8,494 polling stations, out of a total of 26,580,” will be recounted, according to the head of the IEC secretariat, Habib-Ur-Rahman Nang.
Along with the Stability and Convergence team led by Abdullah Abdullah, the Council of Presidential Candidates – which includes 10 out of 18 presidential runners – is also boycotting the vote recount process.
All those candidates who are against the vote recount process have demanded the sorting out of “fraudulent votes” ahead of any further move.
According to Abdullah's team, “over 300,000 fraudulent votes” will not be acceptable under any circumstances.
On Monday, during a speech, presidential candidate Rahmatullah Nabil called out a “certain election campaign team” multiple times, saying it had committed “large-scale fraud” and is trying to gain power through “rigging and fraud.” But he added that everyone has a responsibility to stand against such acts.
Nabil said some “circles in government” claim to support the democratic system but they “want to remain in power by making deals.”
Also on Monday, presidential candidate and Hizb-e-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar at a press conference in Kabul said that 44 percent of the presidential election votes are not valid.
“44 percent of the votes are fraudulent and are non-biometric votes, which is about 1.2 million votes,” he said.