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Afghan votes audit to take 3 weeks

Iran Press TV

Sun Jul 13, 2014 9:17PM GMT

Afghanistan's two presidential candidates will have to wait for almost a month again in order for a recount of total votes cast in the country's disputed run-off poll.

The head of Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC), Yusuf Nuristani, announced on Sunday that the audit of the disputed presidential poll will take three weeks.

Speaking at a press conference in Kabul, Nuristani said 'in order for this audit to be conducted on time, the Independent Election Commission is planning to form 100 teams that will review 1,000 ballot boxes every day. The audit will end in three weeks.'

Nuristani added that the audit results 'should be accepted by both presidential candidates as agreed.'

The development came after the two rival candidates agreed to the 100 percent audit of the votes.

Initial results of last month's presidential run-off showed that Ashraf Ghani won the election with 56.44 percent of the votes, while Abdullah Abdullah came second with 43.56 percent.

Meanwhile, Jan Kubis, who heads the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, appealed for international observers to come and assist the audit of run-off ballots.

'A large number of people will process hundreds and hundreds of ballot boxes every day, working in shifts to be able to quickly finish the audit,' Kubis said.

The turnout was over eight million out of an estimated electorate of 13.5 million voters.

Abdullah has rejected the initial results as unacceptable and fraudulent, claiming that he was the victim of "industrial-scale" ballot-box stuffing, with many more votes than the voters registered in some areas.

The winner of the Afghan election will succeed outgoing President Hamid Karzai, who has been in power since the US-led invasion of the country in 2001.

Earlier on Sunday, Karzai welcomed an agreement between rival presidential candidates for a full recount of the votes cast in the run-off poll.

MOL/MAM/AS