Noor asks candidates to respect IEC decision

KABUL) on Monday said all questions raised by presidential candidate Dr. Abdullah Abdullah were answered in line with established law, asking President Hamid Karzai to encourage Abdullah to rejoin the election process.

Addressing a news conference here, IEC Spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor reiterated reservations expressed by Abdullah were responded positively as per election and country’s law.

Referring to Abdullah’s question as to why the numbers of polling stations in the second round were increased, Noor said that the IEC had to increase the strength of polling stations following suggestions by both the candidates.

He went on to say that shortage of polling stations in the first round of elections had led authorities to surge the number of polling sites in the second round, an issue that both the contenders had agreed upon.

On Abdullah’s request to hold reelection for third time in some of the provinces, Noor said the IEC had responded Abdullah’s questions in line with established election rules and regulation.

Abdullah’s reforms and unanimity team on Sunday suspended all contacts with the election commission by claiming that the IEC had rejected all their questions.

Earlier, Abdullah’s team said of having no trust on the IEC as a legal body and President Hamid Karzai would be held responsible for any incident or IEC move.

Noor said the IEC strived hard to convince Abdullah to rejoin the vote-tallying process. In addition, senior IEC officials last night held detailed meeting with Karzai and his vice-presidents and asked them to encourage Abdullah to rejoin the IEC.

The IEC said that the preliminary results of the election would be announced on July 2, and the final result on July 22.

Noor added 99.7 percent of the votes have been processed and joined with the central IEC office. The recounting process of all 60 polling sites was completed.

Noor added that they investigated 1,930 polling sites in which a candidate won 599 to 600 votes in each of polling sites over 30 provinces of the country. This would help ensure transparency of the election process.

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