KABUL - Despite delays and disputes over the auditing process, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has said that the invalidation of fraudulent ballots will begin by the end of the week.

The announcement comes as presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah's camp reported progress in their dispute over the criteria being used in the invalidation process. According to Abdullah's team, the United Nations (UN) has largely accommodated their demands in the final version of the criteria to be used later this week.

However, those plans may not play out so smoothly, as Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai and his team has said that while they accept the vote invalidation criterion that was agreed on between the candidates during their joint meeting with UNAMA and the Independent Election Commission (IEC), they do not accept the new changes made in response to Abdullah's demands.

UNAMA spokesman Neelab Mubarez claimed on Monday that a consensus had been reached over the five points Abdullah's team had reservations about.

"The issue of imaginary polling sites on which the Dr. Abdullah Abdullah electoral camp has reservations, UNAMA wants to once again stress that no one vote from such sites will be entered into the database," Mubarez said. "If a serious issue emerges during the auditing that isn't included in the criteria, the UN will consider it in consultation with the two camps."

Abdullah's team expressed some satisfaction at the changes, but also said there remained some points of contention that would need to be ironed-out before the end of the week.

"What is hopeful is that part of the recommendations were accepted and it was published in the UN press release," senior Abdullah technical staffer Fazel Ahmad Manavi said. "Our discussions will continue and the criteria will not be implemented until the end of this week, we have offered five recommendations, two or three of them have been settled, one of them will be considered by the end of the week, so we agreed the process can go on, but implementation of the criteria must be stopped until our demands are considered."

Abdullah's recommendations for the invalidation criteria have been summarized as follows:

1. If the list of the voters isn't present or it is blank or repetition of article "10" or 90 percent of the votes used in favor of one candidate.

2. In the case the votes used at a site in the second round of election is more than 100 percent higher than the first round or more than 90 percent of votes used in support of one candidate

3. In the case the total number of votes in a ballot box is 600 or more.

4. In the case the votes of imaginary sites are included into the system and ballot boxes are non-existent

5. The loss of the ballot boxes isn't justifiable

According to UNAMA, the outcome of the auditing and invalidation process will be added to a database in the presence of top UN electoral representatives and the two electoral teams.

"Vote invalidation and counting will be started by the end of the week, once the technical database is prepared," Mubarez said on Monday. (Tolonews)