KABUL - Some lawmakers on Sunday asked the Independent Election Commission (IEC) to declare preliminary result of the presidential election and the government to prevent electoral teams from disrupting the electoral process in provinces.
The presidential election was held on September 28. The preliminary result was expected on October 19 and the final outcome on October 7.
But the results were postponed due to slow data entry and technical problems in the commission’s main server.
The IEC had earlier promised unveiling the preliminary results from the election on November 14 and the final results on December 6.
The vote audit and recount process has been completed in 24 provinces and talks with protesting candidates in this regard are underway, the election body said on Saturday.
Supporters of the ‘Stability and Partnership’ electoral team led by Dr. Abdullah Abdullah prevented the vote recount process in seven provinces.
However, talks in this regard are underway with the protesting candidates and the result forms of 17 provinces have reached the IEC central office in Kabul.
A group of lawmakers who support the ‘State Builder’ electoral team led by President Ashraf Ghani, held a press conference here and urged early completion of the vote recount and audit process and announcement of preliminary elections result.
The lawmakers in a joint statement read out by Khadija Ilham, a lawmaker from centrak Kapisa province, said: “We are more than 160 lawmakers and we once again declare our support for the ‘State Builder’ electoral team.”
She said announcing the election results were the IEC job and they totally supported the IEC in this regard.
The statement said, “The people of Afghanistan would not tolerance further turbulences by some electoral teams as they delayed the process under different names.”
The statement said the government should prevent disturbances of a number of electoral teams who had closed IEC offices in some provinces. It asked the protesting team to let IEC officials finish their duty.
The statement added if the IEC was not able to complete the vote recount and audit in the seven provinces, it should declare the audit result of provinces where it had been completed.
The participants of the gathering urged all presidential candidates not to make hurdles for the IEC and let the electoral body complete the vote recount and audit process in all provinces. (Pajhwok)