Ghani leads Abdullah by 800,000 votes: source

KABUL (Pajhwok): The vote audit shows presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai has a 800,000 vote lead over his rival Abdullah Abdullah, an official confided to Pajhwok Afghan News on Tuesday.

As the Independent Election Commission (IEC) refused giving information about the audit’s outcome, a source in the commission said votes cast in 1,010 ballots boxes had been invalidated as part of the just-concluded process.

The IEC launched the vote invalidation process on August 25 in presence of candidates’ representatives, national and international observes and completed it on Sunday (Sep 14).   

A day earlier, IEC chairman Ahmad Yusuf Nuristan told reporters that 405 suspect ballot boxes had been re-examined for technical reasons.

He said the Abdullah-led Reform and Unanimity had lodged some 2,200 complaints and 1,683 of them were found legitimate.

Ashraf Ghani’s Change and Continuity (C&C) team has lodged 729 complaints, with 242 considered valid. The audit outcome will be shared with the Independent Election Complaints Commission (IECC) soon.

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