KABUL - The Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) said on Sunday that 275 complaints regarding fraud and electoral violations had been registered with the institution since polls closed on Election Day. The complaints commission said the number would likely increase, and urged the Independent Election Commission (IEC) to cooperate in fielding complaints from provinces around the country.

According to ECC spokesman Nader Mohseni, who spoke at a press conference in Kabul on Sunday, 135 of the 275 total complaints registered so far were submitted officially in hard copy form. Another 140 were registered by phone and would only be used for information purposes in the investigation process for formal complaints.

Mohseni said 29 of the complaints received are regarding IEC employees, which he said was a significant number. The other complaints are against candidates’ observers and security forces. He said there was evidence some voters had been coerced into voting for a particular candidate.

The ECC also urged its fellow commission, the IEC, to cooperate in the collection of complaints from the provinces outside Kabul, where the ECC does not have offices. As was the case in the first round, the complaints commission will rely on the IEC’s provincial offices to gather official complaints and transfer them to its headquarters in Kabul for review.

IEC spokesman Noor Muhammad Noor has assured that the commission will support the ECC as is needed. “Once election materials are collected from the centers, we will send the complaint forms to the offices of the ECC,” he said.

During the first round, the ECC complained that the IEC had failed to get complaints from the provinces to the capital in a timely fashion. Ultimately the complaints commission was forced to push back its timeline due to the delays.

The ECC and IEC have butted heads on a number of occasions during this year's election process. Over 5,000 IEC employees were blacklisted for their involvement in fraud during the first round, and on Sunday, Mohseni assured that any complaints regarding IEC employees would be taken seriously.

Although the ECC has said the flow of complaints since polls closed on Saturday indicates there was less fraud in the second round than there was in the first, Mohseni made it clear that the number would probably increase as the 48-hour window for registering complaints progressed.

The deadline for filing complaints with the ECC has been set for 12:00am Monday night. The evaluation process is then expected to take 10 days. (Tolonews)