The Afghan election body tasked to audit all 8m ballot papers to restore faith to the disputed elections on Tuesday said it has yet to begin what is called a historic audit, blaming the UN for failing to dispatch international observers to monitor the process.
Speaking to TOLOnews, Independent Election Commission (IEC) commissioner Mohammad Aziz Bakhtyari said the United Nation’s mission in Afghanistan has asked them not to begin the auditing in absence of international observers.
“The reason which has delayed the auditing process is because the UN has recommended that it must be conducted under supervision of national and international observers, but until now, the observers haven’t arrived,” said Bakhtyari.
The US Secretary of State John Kerry who ended an electoral impasse on Saturday after two days of talks with both Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, called for an overall audit to begin within 24 hours.
The UN, overseeing the audit, met with the election commission and representatives of the candidates on Sunday to develop a checklist to determine fraudulent votes.
Mr Abdullah’s camp has claimed that more than three million fraudulent votes are counted in the preliminary results which need to be taken out.
“Today, the checklist and the standards will be finalized. Eleven standards have been recommended by the IEC and five others by the UN,” said Commissioner Bakhtyari.
The audit will be monitored by the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC), the panel which certifies the final results -- now expected to be announced with a few weeks delay from the original July 22 deadline.
“ECC staff will conduct monitoring of the [auditing] process. The results will come to us and we will take decision on the final results,” said ECC spokesman, Nadir Mohseni.
The overall audit is said to be a difficult process logistically as most of the ballot boxes are in the provinces. Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) has agreed to transport all the boxes to Kabul where the audit will take place.
Both candidates have agreed to accept the results after the audit and the winner would accommodate the loser into a “national unity government” which its details are yet to be developed by the two candidates.
