KANDAHAR (Pajhwok): The Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) on Tuesday announced invalidating 3,000 votes in southern Kandahar province and some individuals referred to judiciary over alleged rigging and fraud during the Oct 20 parliamentary elections.
Karimullah Stanikzai, IECC head for Kandahar, told reporter here that 170 polling stations were open in 11 police districts of Kandahar City and 17 districts where people exercised their right to vote.
He said the Wolesi Jirga elections could not be held in Maroof and Nesh districts due to security issues while three polling stations in Arghistan and one polling station each in Ghorak, Shorabak and Mianshin districts were open.
He added in total 190,000 people in Kandahar cast their votes in which 40,000 votes missed biometric verification.
Some polling stations remained closed on the Elections Day because electon personnel did not arrive there on the voting day.
Stanikzai said 469 complaints had been registered with them during elections, out of which 61 complaints were highly important.
The IECC head said all complaints had been addressed in line with the law and votes of 29 polling stations encompassing 97 polling booths had been inspected and recounted.
As a result of the vote recount and inspection, 3,000 votes were invalidated because of rigging and other problems, he said, adding the complaints commission had referred three persons to the attorney office, sent cases of four persons to Kabul for further investigation and fined 14 others.
He said senior IECC officials, candidates and common people were among the individuals detained and fined.
nh/ma
