KABUL - US Ambassador to Afghanistan, John Bass, on Monday voiced support for the decision of the country's electoral authorities to count only biometrically verified votes.
“We support the commission’s decision to only verify biometrically verified votes,” Ambassador John Bass said addressing reporters during visit to the Independent Election Commission.
The diplomat said that he discussed with election officials the importance of “clarifying for the Afghan people how many polling centers and polling stations were closed and where they were located so that as biometric process goes forward people have confidence that the electronic results verified physical results.”
Stressing on integrity of the election, the envoy said that it was important that people have confidence in the vote rather trying to meet an artificial deadline.
According to IEC, more than 2.7 million votes were recorded in September 28 presidential election in Afghanistan.
On Monday, IEC said that 1.7 million biometrically verified votes were recorded as it processed data from 85 percent of polling stations.