KABUL (Pajhwok): Some political parties welcomed on Monday what they said huge turnout in the Wolesi Jirga elections but also alleged the vote was massively rigged.
Biometric system was for the first time used in the election to ensure transparency but votes were polled at some polling stations without biometric verification due to technical problems in the devices.
Political parties such as Junbish-i-Milli, Jamiat-i-Islami, Mahaz-i-Milli Islami and Junbish-i-Milli Islami members addressed a press conference on elections in Kabul and issued a joint statement.
Khan Mohammad Wahdat, a representative of Junbish-i-Milli read the joint statement, hailing grand participation of people in the elections and termed it the success of democracy.
He said biometric devices did not work properly in some polling centres and the election staff was also not properly trained how to use the devices.
Besides technical problems in the biometric devices, complete voter lists were also not provided to polling stations.
Nader Hasas, the member of the Afghan Mellat Party, said their demand was that ballots without biometric verification should be considered invalid.
Humayon Jarer, member of the Hizb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA), said the election commission should answer why the voting was conducted in an improper manner and why fraud and other issues happened on the Election Day.
Abdul Aziz Ibrahimi, deputy head of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), rejected the commission’s involvement in rigging. He said if fraud had taken place it would be assessed by the Independent Election Complaints Commission (IECC).
