ECC Wants To Isolate Votes From Certain Centers

Fuente: 
Tolo News
Fecha de publicación: 
15 Abr 2014

Based on hundreds of serious complaints lodged against certain polling centers around the country, the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) has called on the Independent Election Commission (IEC) to isolate thousands of votes from the counting process that is already well underway.

ECC's Spokesperson Nader Mohseni said that 870 serious complaints have been filed against certain polling centers, among the over 3,000 total complaints that have been submitted. Mohseni declined to provide details about the complaints or the centers at which they were directed.

However, 1,000 complaints filed with the ECC were said to be against IEC employees. The IEC has repeatedly restated its commitment to a transparent and fair vote-counting process, but it came under fire this week after announcing partial results that had not yet been filtered for fraud.

On Sunday, partial results based on 10 percent of votes were announced, placing Abdullah Abdullah in the lead of the presidential race. A number of candidates and civil society groups questioned the results on the basis that illegitimate ballots had been counted amongst them.

But this week has seen the IEC try to establish confidence in the vote-counting process. On Tuesday in Kabul, IEC officials announced that all result sheets returned without proper packaging, IEC stamping and endorsement signatures from observers would be disqualified.

The ECC has already begun evaluating complaints in provincial offices and it will begin next week in the central Kabul office. The ECC has said some IEC officials have be uncooperative with their investigations, but IEC spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor maintained on Tuesday that there would be full cooperation.

"The Independent Election Commission is the partner of the Complaints Commission and we can share offices and equipment," Noor said.

Meanwhile, the Free and Fair Elections Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA) criticized both electoral commissions for reportedly not allowing observers to monitor the vote registration and complaints investigation processes.

"The ECC invites the observers only when they receive the complaints, but when they start evaluating, there are no observers," FEFA spokesperson Mohammad Fahim Naeemi said.

 

Source/Fuente: http://www.tolonews.com/elections2014/ecc-wants-isolate-votes-certain-ce...