The United Nations (UN) reported that both presidential candidates signaled their support on Saturday for the UN's proposed invalidation criteria for the vote auditing process.
The UN office in Kabul said that the organization was notified by both candidates and now expects the audit process to move forward without further delay. The UN had previously submitted the proposal to the Independent Election Commission (IEC) without approval from the candidates and the commission said the auditing process would need to be put on hold until they could reach agreement.
"Dr. Abdullah Abdullah and Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai have both told the UN that they support the UN proposal regarding the recounting and invalidation of votes," said Neelab Mubarez, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
Abdullah Abdullah's campaign team has said that they do not think the UN's proposal is sufficient and sent recommendations on how to improve the proposal. "This proposal is not a comprehensive proposal, and does not cover all angles, we have some suggestions and will send them to the UN," said Fazel Rahman Oyra, a member of Abdullah's camp.
Meanwhile, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai's campaign team has said that while they continue to have some concerns regarding the UN proposal, they have accepted it in order to avoid prolonging the election process any further, which they believe would be against Afghanistan's best interests.
"One of our observations was that IEC employees were trained so that if elderly, uneducated people could not choose their favorite candidate, IEC employees could tick mark their favorite candidate," Ashraf Ghani campaign representative Daud Sultanzoy said. "Won't there be similarities between those tick marks?"
The UN proposal suggests that the invalidation of votes take place in public hearings held by the IEC and in the presence of UN representatives, the candidates' observers, international observers and the media. Abdullah has asked the UN to play a central role in the public hearings out of mistrust for the IEC's neutrality.
