Unsuccessful runners call for recount of votes

KABUL/PUL-I-KHUMRI (Pajhwok): Hundreds of failed Provincial Council (PC) candidates from central Maidan Wardak, northern Balkh and Herat provinces staged a protest on Thursday and demanded a recount of votes.

They also demanded the names of 5,300 sacked Independent Election Commission (IEC) employees should be made public to the nation and their fraud attempts revealed.

The former runners alleged that the shortage of ballot papers was a deliberate attempt to rig the election in favour of particular hopefuls. The IEC had announced preliminary results of the provincial councils last week.

Hamida Wardak, an unsuccessful PC candidate from Kabul, alleged that some contenders declared winners in the first round were tainted with fraud and rigging.

She told Pajhwok Afghan News: “We do not want to get political power by staging protest but we want both commissions to respect people’s votes. The IEC should make the names of those employees public involved in massive irregularities.”

The Independent Electoral Complaint Commission (IECC) had said more than 3,000 complaints had been registered in connection of provincial council results.

IEC Spokesman Noor Muhammad Noor asked the protesting PC candidates to submit their evidence into the electoral fraud to the IECC and defend them in open session.

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