Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, a three-time presidential contender, on Sunday criticized the Independent Election Commission, or IEC, for “ignoring” the demands of presidential candidates to sort out disputed votes, saying efforts are underway to add “fraudulent votes” into the total number tallied from the September 28 election day.

The dispute over valid votes halted the vote recount and delayed the announcement of the preliminary results, which was scheduled for Nov. 14.

Teams from three government institutions have been assigned to probe the findings of reports by Logar’s civil society over alleged sexual abuse of 550 children and youth from six schools in the eastern province.

The teams are from the Ministry of Education, the Afghan parliament and local officials.