KABUL (Pajhwok): The Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) on Sunday publicly heard cases of fraud in the April 5 presidential vote in the central zone.
Complaints from Kabul, Parwan, Kapisa, Maidan Wardak, Logar, Panjsher, Bamyan, Daikundi and Ghazni were reviewed at a meeting attended by civil society activists, election observers, media and candidate representatives.
Category-A objections involved documentary evidence, category-B complaints were decided by the commission and category-C plaints disposed of by the panel’s provincial offices.
IECC Deputy Chairperson Reda Azimi told reporters that the meeting was the first of its kind reviewing complaints from central provinces.
Representatives of candidates and judicial officials were given time to defend their claims with proofs.
Most of the complaints were registered against presidential candidates Dr Abdullah Abdullah and Dr Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai.
But representatives of some runners did not agree with the IECC decision, saying producers of false documents should be prosecuted.
The complaints concerned fraud, ballot-stuffing, disruptions at some polling stations by illegal gunmen and refusal of entry to election observers.
Azimi said the five-day meeting would also review more than 2,000 complaints of four other zones. The commission will make its decision on the complaints next week.
She added commission workers were trying to address all complaints in the stipulated time and the result would be shared with the Independent Election Commission (IEC).
The IEC staffers involved in election fraud would be put on the black list and introduced to courts if charges against them were proven, she promised.
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