On Wednesday the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) welcomed the Independent Election Commission’s (IEC) verdict in accepting the criteria for the invalidation of votes in the inclusive audit process.
In a statement released by UNAMA on Wednesday, head of UNAMA Ján Kubiš said, “the IEC’s adoption of the criteria means that the regulatory framework for the presidential audit is now complete.”
He adds that “it will help minimize the points of friction encountered in the audit so far” encouraging “both campaigns to continue demonstrating the political will necessary to proceed expeditiously with the audit, without any interruption.”
On Thursday, at a press conference in Kabul at the IEC headquarters, IEC Chairman Yousuf Ahmad Nuristani publicly announced their implementation of the UN audit checklist, emphasizing that the criteria for the vote invalidation process has been finalized.
“The candidates must accept the criteria,” Nuristani said. “This time the process will continue and we will not stop.”
According to Kubiš, the invalidation criterion was finalized after two weeks of talks between the IEC members and the candidates’ technical representatives.
He stressed that the criteria will separate the clean votes from the fraudulent votes on the basis of international standards and with the Afghan laws in consideration. Kubiš added that United Nations (UN) experts will soon arrive to Kabul to assist the IEC with the invalidation process.
“We are proud to work together hand in hand in the audit process,” Kubiš said at Thursday’s press conference. “Every valid vote of the country will be counted and any delay in the process will have a bad impact both on the political and economical situation of Afghanistan.”
The auditing process is said to resume on Saturday and until then all election observers will be trained in agreement to the UN procedure that has been accepted by the IEC.
According to the criteria suggested by the UN, the following are among the reasons that constitute for vote invalidation:
• Absence of IEC stamp and signatures of observers on the ballot result sheets
• Similar marks on the ballots
• Presence of 600 or over ballots in favor of one candidate
• Difference in the result sheets and ballots
• Broken ballot boxes
• Other signs of fraud, such as the absence of ballot boxes along with the list of voters in each box
The vote audit process was paused because of disagreements between the candidates about the criteria and procedures. The UN mediation helped create new criteria that would be favorable to both presidential camps; however, it is yet to be seen whether or not the process will move forward in a timely manner.