The complete auditing of ballots cast during the runoff round of this year’s presidential election is to resume on Saturday, according to election officials. The Independent Election Commission (IEC) has assured the public that the process will be conducted faster than before, after repeated delays have pushed back the conclusion to the second round.
The IEC has said that the audit will resume based on the criteria proposed by the United Nations (UN), which the commission claimed has been accepted by both candidates.
“Tomorrow the audit process will officially resume. This time, the audit process will continue in two shifts, from seven to one in the afternoon, and from two to eight pm. In every shift, 100 people will work.
This time the audit process will be better and faster, because commission employees have been trained and observers are used to the process. IEC has accepted and approved the UNAMA criteria. UNAMA has told us that both candidates have accepted the criteria and don’t have any problems,” IEC spokesman Noor Muhammad Noor said.
But according to Abdullah Abdullah’s campaign team, the UN proposed criteria is not complete, and has not been fully approved. Abdullah’s camp has said they submitted recommendations that have not yet been integrated into the criteria, and that they will not approve the criteria until their suggestions are obliged.
Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai and his campaign have said they approved the criteria and expect the process to move forward quickly. And, for now, it would seem the commission plans to do just that.
Election observers have said they are prepared for the auditing to begin once again, but stressed the importance of monitoring the process.
“Tomorrow, when the audit resumes, observers must be present, candidates’ representatives must be present, the process must be transparent, and the commission must manage the process and must not let the candidate representatives interfere in the issues that relate to the commission,” said Naeem Ayoubzada, the head of the Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan (TEFA).
According to the IEC, 18,876 ballot boxes from 22 provinces have been safely transferred to the IEC Head Office for the audit, making up 82.7 percent of the total boxes that will be inspected.
The UN has said that over 200 international observers will work the audit process full time. Jeff Fischer, a senior international expert on elections whose prior experience includes serving as chief electoral officer for the Popular Consultation for East Timor and heading the Joint Registration Taskforce in Kosovo, has also arrived in Kabul to oversee the audit.