Afghan Election Complaints’ Result Announced/ 137,000 Votes to Subject to Special Audit

Afghan IECC officials announced the result of the audit and review of the election complaints, saying that over 137 thousand “suspicious” votes are being subjected to special audit.

Afghan IECC officials announced the result of the audit and review of the election complaints, saying that over 137 thousand “suspicious” votes are being subjected to special audit.
Zuhra Bayan Shinwari, the head of independent electoral complaints commission (IECC) said during a press conference on Wednesday that the commission was able to address more than 22,500 electoral complaints, including 16,500 primary complaints and over 6,200 appeal complaints.
“Ten percent of the suspicious votes (a total of 137,630 votes) is subject to special audit, and if it would have 65 percent of the criteria such as having biometric records, journals, and result sheets, will be validated and if it does not have 35 percent of the criteria, will be recognized as invalid,” she said.

According to her, on 102,012 votes outside polling hours, 1,103 polling stations (15 percent) of 7,354 stations where the votes were recorded are subject to special audit. If 65 percent of the polling stations are found to have biometric records, journals, and result sheets, all such votes will be valid and if not, all the votes will be invalidated.
“On complaints about 2,423 polling stations without biometric verification, 298 polling stations are subject to a recount. If these stations would meet the required criteria, will be valid, if not, will be announced invalid,” Shinwari added.

Part of the votes in these polling stations has already been invalidated.
The IECC also rejected the difference of 1 to 5 votes which the IEC recognized as valid.
According to the IECC, these decisions have been sent to the IEC for implementation.