Another 2 sites’ votes reinstated: Watchdog

KABUL).

The IEC had declared invalid votes from the 69 polling sites three days ago, but the decision was challenged by the Change and Continuity team, lodging 12 complaints with the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) in this regard.

The IECC addressed the complaints at an open hearing in Kabul on Tuesday. A representative of the Change and Continuity team, Abdul Habib Hashmi, told the hearing that they filed complaints because the IEC had previously declared as valid votes from the said polling centres.

But IECC secretary and spokesman Nader Mohseni said their investigation showed the votes of only two polling centres were valid and the rest should be thrown out.

He said the votes were invalidated because some ballot boxes lacked lists of votes and others lacked lists of voters. Some ballots had similar tick marks and some ballot boxes had been stuffed by powerful individuals and others had been broken or their locks differed from those provided by the election commission.

A day earlier, the IEC announced it finished auditing and recounting of votes in 20501 ballot boxes until evening and audit of the remaining 2327 ballot boxes would be completed within a few days.

The commission has so far invalidated votes from 452 polling centres. However, the IECC has so far reinstated cancelled votes from eight polling sites.

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