Vote result: IEC meeting ends inconclusively

KABUL (Pajhwok): An overnight meeting of the election bodies on announcing the preliminary result from the presidential election ended with not outcome, an official said on Sunday.

Maulana Abdullah, an Independent Election Commission (IEC) member, wrote on his Facebook account that the meeting ended at midnight without any agreement on unveiling the result.

He wrote, “Now it’s 12:15am but we did not reach any agreement.” However, the official hoped the election panels might soon announce the result.

Noor Rahman Akhlaqi, a member of the Stability and Partnership team, wrote on his account that they would never accept a result rigged or manipulated. “Democracy stems from votes of people, who are the real power in any system ...”

He said the time had gone when power was grabbed through rigging and fraud. “Now power lies with the people,” Akhlaqi remarked.

On the other hand, Shah Shah HussainMurtazavi, advisor to President Ashraf Ghani, said people were waiting for the presidential election result.

He added all hurdles and excuses had been eliminated but the Stability and Partnership team was busy sightseeing in India and kept the entire nation waiting for the result.

On Saturday, the poll panel said it would soon announce the much-awaited preliminary results from the presidential ballot.

IEC Secretary Habib Rahman Nang told reporters in Kabul result sheets from the remaining six provinces had been completed and work was underway on initial results.

He said reports would be presented to IEC leadership after their completion. IEC bosses would make a decision on announcement of the preliminary results.

Nang called the presidential election the ‘most transparent’ in the history of the country and said the commission would unveil the results soon.

But Mohammad Younis Nawandesh, a member of the Stability and Partnership team led by Dr. Abdullah, said the vote recount and audit process in 27 provinces had been completed in the absence of their observers.

He said their team would not accept the primary results until the recount process was done again in front of their observers in 27 provinces.

But Abdul Qader Hotkhel, an observer of the team led by President Ashraf Ghani, accused Abdullah’s supporters seeking to hold the process hostage through different excuses.

While slamming opposition to the vote recount and audit, he said the people should not be kept waiting and the commission should complete its job.

The presidential election was held on September 28. But due to technical issues in separation of clean and fraudulent votes, the panel could not announce the result on its due date.

pk/mud