KABUL (Pajhwok): Some Wolesi Jirga candidates claim the Oct 20 Wolesi Jirga elections were rigged in central Maidan Wardak and Kapisa provinces, demanding cancellation of suspicious ballots.
Seven Wolesi Jirga candidates from Kapisa province told reporters in Kabul that the elections in Kapisa were full of rigging and fraud.
Wolesi Jirga hopeful Omaid Sapi said ‘systematic rigging’ took place during elections in Kapisa and that some incumbent lawmakers in complicity of local government officials and security forces stuffed ballot boxes with fraudulent votes.
He said elections in Allah Sae, Tagab, Nejrab and Hazaran districts took place without biometric verification at the behest of specific candidates.
Sapi said they would not accept Independent Election Commission (IEC) decisions if transparent votes were not separated from fake ones.
Mohammad Masoum Hashami, another Wolesi Jirga candidate, from Kapisa said late beginning of voting, faulty biometric devices, absent IEC staff and local officials at polling stations, barring observers from monitoring the process were among issues which needed the election body’s attention.
He said powerful individuals directly supported some candidates and expelled observers from polling sites in Nejrab and Tagab districts and stuffed ballot boxes.  He also demanded non-biometric votes to be invalidated.
Meanwhile, some Wolesi Jirga candidates from Maidan Wardak province also addressed a press conference in Kabul about issues that plagued the elections there.
Wolesi Jirga candidate Walliullah Shaheen said some polling stations ran out of ballot papers on the election day.
He said names were missing from voter lists and lack of equipment and personnel hampered the voting process and a large number of people were unable to take part.
Besides these problems powerful individuals were also present and stuffed ballot boxes for specific candidates they supported, he said.
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