Ballot boxes in 26 Balkh sites found suspicious

MAZAR-I-SHARIF (Pajhwok): The Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) on Sunday said it had recommended placing under quarantine ballot boxes of 26 polling centres in northern Balkh province.

They said a vote recount and audit into 50 of 73 ballot boxes from 17 polling centres in Balkh had been completed in compliance with directives from the Independent Election Commission (IEC.

IECC official in Balkh Dad Mohammad Anabi told Pajhwok Afghan News there were 126 complaints and all of them had been investigated.

On the basis of 26 complaints having valid documents in support, ballot boxes of the 26 polling centres had been recommended to the IEC headquarters to isolate them, he said.

These centres were in Mazar-i-Sharif and 14 districts, but most of the suspicious ballots belonged to Mazar-i-Sharif, Zari and Chamtal districts, he explained.

Anabi said the remaining 100 complaints did not lead to isolating any ballot boxes because the objections lacked documents in support.

“It is possible some of the 100 complaints were important, but the claims had no credibility in the absence of evidence,” he said.

He said they had set last Friday the last date for registering complaints, but no one turned up to register and they had to wrap up the process.

Anabi said IECC officials themselves had tried their level best to find evidence with regard to the remaining complaints, but in vain.

He said the process to review and recount votes polled at 17 polling centres, containing 73 ballot boxes, began a week back and was still ongoing.

Some of the 50 ballot boxes investigated had technical problems, said Anabi, explaining some ballots had not been stamped and one box had its locks broken and others votes wrongly folded.

He said most of the violations had technical aspect showing mistakes by election officials, but there was the possibility of interferences by irrelevant individuals.

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