KABUL - With nearly all ballots and result sheets delivered to the central Independent Election Commission (IEC) office in Kabul, a joint IEC and Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) recount is expected to begin for 22 provinces.

IEC alluded to transparency and addressing the complaints of election observers and presidential candidates as the reasons behind the recount, the announcement of which comes the same day the ECC stated there were 892 complaint cases that directly impacted votes cast on April 5.

"Recount of votes in 22 provinces officially started today. In total, recount will take place in 31 provinces," IEC spokesman Noor Muhammad Noor said on Wednesday.

Mr. Noor said that centers with more than 600 ballots - the standard number distributed to each site - would all be recounted, as per procedure.

Result sheets from nearly 500 centers have been returned to IEC headquarters without proper stamping or endorsements from IEC observers and are under review.

"There were instances where results sheets had no IEC stamp or no signature of center managers or observers. The commission has decided to these results sheets will be re-audited," Noor added.

The IEC had said earlier this week that result sheets without the IEC stamp and signatures from observers would be considered void and would not be counted as part of the preliminary results.

The ECC has reportedly sent information to the IEC intended for isolating corrupted votes from the counting process. However, a significant number of the complaints the ECC has received have been directed at IEC employees. (Tolonews)