KABUL (Pajhwok): Blaming the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) responsible for delay in the provincial council election results, the poll panel on Monday indicated the outcome might be announced this week.

Azizullah Bakhtiari, an Independent Election Commission (IEC) member, told Pajhwok Afghan News that some IECC decisions were still unclear. Lack of professional workers is the main cause of unclear decisions, he believed.

The IECC was responsible for sharing the details of the complaints it had addressed, but the watchdog only conveyed its decisions, the commissioner added.

Bakhtiari explained results from 4,000 polling stations would be entered into the IEC system within two days. He linked the delay to the weak performance of IECC. “Their schedule in the past six months hasn’t been that hectic. They should have addressed the complaints in time.”

As many as 458 candidates, including 97 women, were declared successful in the preliminary results from the provincial polls, announced by the Independent Election Commission on May 20.

Final results were to be unveiled on June 17, but their announcement was delayed by the presidential election deadlock and the subsequent nationwide vote audit.

Bakhtiari said both panels were working to deal with ambiguous decisions of the complaints commission. “Present provincial members will legally stay in office legal until the announcement of the final results.”

About reforms in the election system, promised by President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the commissioner said all changes had to be consistent with the law.

The removal of an election official would be illegal in the absence of clear evidence of his/her involvement in fraud, Bakhtiari said. The system should be computerised to reduce the possibility of fraud, he proposed.

mds/mud