KABUL (Pajhwok): The Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Tuesday could not start the process to audit and recount votes due to differences between its commissioners.
IEC Commissioner Maulana Abdullah Facebook handler wrote that the recount of votes should be started after the fate of  102,012 votes cast before and after the official time and 137, 630 quarantined votes was decided.
He wrote: “Transparency and compliance with electoral legal documents should form the basis of the IEC work proceedings.”
Abdullah said the recount should take place as per the law: “What we need is general and sub-planning for the vote recount as well as management and differentiation between polling stations in Kabul and provinces, otherwise the process will create more troubles instead of solutions.”
A well-placed source inside the IEC on the condition of anonymity, said that the vote audit and recount process was scheduled to begin today (Tuesday) officially, but due to difference of views among the Commissioners and opposition from the Stability and Partnership team, the process could not started.
Samiullah Samim, a representative of the Stability and Partnership team, demanded that the fate of 102,012 votes polled beyond the official time, 137,630 quarantined votes and 47,527 votes with repeated photographs should be decided first. He made it clear that non-biometric votes and ballots polled beyond official time were not acceptable to them.
But, Abdul Qadir Hodkhel, an observer of the State Builder team, said the Dermalog Company had excluded non-biometric votes, votes with repeated photographs and votes with ineligible age when the company submitted its report to the IEC.
He criticized IEC Commissioner Maulana Abdullah’s decision to postpone the recount process, saying IEC officials should speak logically and not create challenges for the vital national process.
The election teams of Abdullah Abdullah, Rahmatullah Nabil and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar opposed the start of the vote audit and recount process on Tuesday, November 5.
A document from Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC), a copy of which was received by Pajhwok Afghan News, shows that votes from more than 2,100 polling stations are set for an audit and recount as of November 3.
“Initially 1,844 polling stations needed a recount, but when the list was completed, the number of such polling stations rose to over 2,100 in 23 provinces,” according to the report.
IECC Commissioner Syed Qutbuddin Roydar said on Tuesday that the process of audit and recount of 2,118 polling stations will begin in 23 provinces.
According to the IECC document, most of polling stations identified for recount are in 10 provinces that include 372 polling stations in Baghlan, 317 in Helmand, 207 in Ghor, 189 in Kandahar, 186 in Nangarhar, 179 in Khost, 123 in Kapesa, 104 in Faryab, 81 in Kunar and 73 in Paktia province.
In addition, 66 polling stations in Zabul, 44 in Parwan, 35in Nimroz, 30 in Farah, 26 in Farah, 22 in Logar, 22 in Nuristan, 17 in Takhar, nine in Sar-i-Pul, seven in Uruzgan, four in Samangan, three in Bamyan and two in Badakhshan provinces will be recounted.
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