91 Ghazni polling centres’ ballots quarantined

GHAZNI CITY (Pajhwok): The Independent Election Commission (IEC) has ordered putting ballot boxes of 91 polling stations in the quarantine in southern Ghazni province, where 50 complaints have been filed, an official said on Saturday.

Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) official in Ghazni City Ahmad Shah Wahdat told Pajhwok Afghan News 17 of the complaints had been lodged against presidential candidates, 20 against provincial candidates and 17 against IEC workers.

“Seven of the complaints which had evidence in support have been investigated and a as result an Afghan Local Police (ALP) commander and a representative of a provincial candidate were fined,” Wahdat said.

He said they had forwarded all the objections to the IEC’s main office in Kabul, which in return, ordered ballot boxes of 91 polling stations to be sealed.

He said each of the suspicious polling centres contained three polling stations and votes cast in these sites would be recounted in the presence of election observers.

“We won’t let a single fraudulent vote to be counted among the valid ones. We will recount all these ballots in the presence of media and election observers,” Wahdat said.

In total 395 polling stations had been set up for the April 5 elections in Ghazni, but 50 of them could not be open due to high security threats.

mds/ma

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