KABUL - The European Union Election Assessment Team (EU EAT) confirmed the need of an all-inclusive audit of polling stations that affects one-third of the polling sites and 4.2 million votes, as stated in the EU EAT press release.

The announcement of the presidential runoff preliminary results raised flags—according to the figures published by the Independent Election Commission (IEC)—as investigations of nearly two to four million votes have to be further inspected even though, as stated in the media release, "the IEC has invalidated 90 percent less problematic stations than in the first round."

EU Chief Observer Thijs Berman stated that, "at this stage of the analysis of the preliminary results, and without an in-depth audit, the final result is as yet uncertain and it is not possible to declare a winner, given the very high number of votes yet to be validated or annulled."

The high number of discrepancies is a "worrying proportion", stresses the EU EAT. They observers said that of the 2,229 problematic polling stations, "only 135 were excluded from the preliminary results."

"The EU EAT encourages the election authorities to carry out, in Kabul, a comprehensive and transparent audit of the results in a neutral environment and in close cooperation with all the stakeholders as well as to concentrate audit efforts on the polling stations with very high turnouts, and the polling stations where nearly all the votes were cast in favor of a sole candidate," Berman stated. (Tolonews)