Both presidential candidates Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani-Ahmadzai have showed to the United Nations (UN) that they support the Independent Election Commission (IEC) implementing UN’s proposition on the recount and invalidation of ballots, according to a statement released on Saturday by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
The UN proposed the criteria to the IEC on Thursday July 24 upon an agreement by both candidates.
The statement read, “both candidates indicated to the UN that they had their own respective concerns with the proposal, but were prepared to process with it as a good faith effort based on international best practice to bridge their positions.”
According to the UN, both Abdullah and Ghani-Ahmadzai conveyed that the monitoring structure should be finalized in the interest of the nation.
The UN welcomes, as stated, “the statesmanship shown by the candidates in coming to this difficult decision as well as the sincere engagement by their technical teams in preparation of the UN proposal.”
The UN now asks the IEC board to recognize this legal step and to push the momentum of the audit process forward so that the next steps of the election process can begin.