Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

IEC Announces New Criteria for Vote Audit

IEC Announces New Criteria for Vote Audit

KABUL - The Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Thursday said both the presidential candidates had agreed on new criteria proposed by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA), allowing the vote audit to resume on Saturday.

At a joint press conference with UNAMA head Jan Kubis, IEC chief Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani said the sides had agreed on a 24-point checklist for the invalidation of fraudulent votes.

“The candidates are bound to accept the 11 rules of the election commission, the UNAMA has suggested five more points of international standards in the checklist and eight more has been added to the procedure at the request of the candidates. Now both the candidates are bound to obey these principles”, he said, wishing no more halt to the audit process.

Nuristani urged both the presidential candidates, Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, members of their campaign teams and other stakeholders to cooperate with the IEC in finishing the process.

The IEC chief said 100 auditors would work for eight hours in the morning and another 100 in the second shift to speed-up the process. He said, if needed, the number of auditing teams could be increased to 120 a shift.

Speaking on the occasion, UNAMA chief Jan Kubis stressed any further delay in concluding the election process could damage the political and economical environment.

He said the UN and international observers would work in close cooperation with the IEC, the candidates and the Afghan civil society to ensure fair results.

However, Abdullah Abdullah’s campaign team said it was not satisfied with the new criteria. Mujibur Rehman Rahimi, a representative of Abdullah’s camp, said the latest procedure had been designed in haste and could not properly detect fraud.

Ashraf Ghani’s team, meanwhile, said that although some of their recommendations had not been entertained, still they agreed to the new procedure.

Tahir Zaheer, a representative of Ghani’s team, said deliberately delaying the election process further would be a treacherous act against the nation. (Pajhwok)