IECC invalidates votes of 105 polling stations and IEC reports no voting and missing results forms from some polling stations

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) on Monday announced that votes of 105 polling stations have been invalidated.

As well as documents published by the Independent Election Commission’s (IEC) national tally centre show no ballots were cast at 370 polling stations on Election Day during the presidential election and 643 polling station results forms have not been received by the IEC.

Polling stations of invalidated votes

IECC Commissioner Syed Qutbuddin Roydar said that votes of 105 polling stations in five provinces have been invalidated.

He told Pajhwok Afghan News of the votes of 51 polling stations in Farah 17, in Takhar and Kabul 13 each and 11 in Baghlan have been invalidated.

He said the IECC took the decision to invalidate these votes in line with Article 30, 86 and 94 of election law and procedure of the vote recount and quarantine.

The IECC hinted at a change in the number of quarantined polling stations for recount on the basis of the right to appeal.

Polling stations vulnerable to audit or recount:

The Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) said that they have decided to conduct the audit and recount of over 2,100 polling stations.

IECC Commissioner and Spokesperson told Pajhwok Afghan News: “Initially 1,844 polling stations needed recount, but when the list was completed, besides recount of over 2,100 polling stations in 23 provinces there is need for audit as well.”

IECC Commissioner Syed Qutbuddin Roydar said on Tuesday the process of audit and recount of 2,118 polling stations will begin in 23 provinces.

According to an IECC document most of the polling stations identified for recount are in 10 provinces that included 372 polling stations in Baghlan, 317 in Helmand, 207 in Ghor, 189 in Kandahar, 186 in Nangarhar, 179 in Khost, 123 in Kapesa, 104 in Faryab, 81 in Kunar and 73 in Paktia province.

In addition, 66 polling stations in Zabul, 44 in Parwan, 35 in Nimroz, 30 in Farah, 26 in Farah, 22 in Logar, 22 in Nuristan, 17 in Takhar, nine in Sar-i-Pul, seven in Uruzgan, four in Samangan, three in Bamyan and two in Badakhshan provinces will be recounted.

No Votes Cast at 370 Polling Stations:

The report obtained from the IEC tally centre by Pajhwok Afghan News as of November 4 show polling stations where votes were not polled are related to 21 provinces.

According to the IEC information, Ghazni had 88 polling stations that were not visited by voters on the Election Day tops the other provinces in this regard.

No votes were used at 50 polling stations in Kandahar, at 40 in Paktia, at 28 in Heart, at 24 in Maidan Wardak, at 20 in Khost, , at 18 in Badakhshan, at 18 in Kunduz, at 17 in Faryab, at 12 in Logar, at 12 in Paktika., ,

No votes were polled at nine polling stations in Laghman, at eight in Helmand, at eight in Uruzgan, at seven in Nangarhar, at three in Bamyan , at three in Kapisa, at two in Kunar, at one in Nuristanat one in Jawzjan, and at one in Baghlan province.

Results Forms from 643 Polling Stations not Received by the IEC:

The IEC report also shows information that results forms from 643 open polling stations in 26 provinces did not reach the IEC.

So far, results forms from 270 polling stations in Kabul, 130 from Kandahar, 76 from Nangarhar, 39 from in Paktia, 27 from Baghlan, 24 from Herat have not been received by the IEC.

Similarly, nine results forms each from Parwan, Nuristan and Helmand, eight each from Kapesa and Khost, six from Zabul, five from Faryab, four from Kunduz and three each from Balkh and Nimroz have not yet reached the Commission.

Results forms from two polling stations each in Samangan, Logar, Farah and Laghmand province and result from one each station in Bamyan, Paktika, Badakhshan, Takhar and Daikundi provinces are also not yet arrived at the IEC.

Closed polling stations:

The IEC tally centre report received by Pajhwok Afghan News showed 3,006 of 29,586 polling stations remained closed on Election Day in 28 of 34 provinces.

Provinces where more polling stations remained closed are Balkh 487 polling stations, Daikundi 318, Faryab 272, Baghlan 263, Takhar 235, Paktia 208, Kunduz 208, Kunduz 184, Badghis 170, Herat 156, Wardak 124, Nuristan 117 and Badakhshan 109.

In ten more provinces that included Samangan 93, Sar-i-Pul 61, Laghman, 54, Logar 31, Jawzjan 32, Zabul 22, Kapesa 19, Nangarhar 18, Kandahar 17 and Kabul 15 polling stations remained closed on polling day.

In addition, three polling stations in Ghazni, two each in Uruzgan and Bamyan while one each in Helmand, Parwan and Khost provinces reported closed on poling day.

The IEC report show 25,567 vote results forms have so far been scanned, cleared and data entered to IEC’s national tally center.

Prior to election day, the IEC leadership had approved 29,586 polling stations (11,119 for women and 18,467 for men) or 5,373 polling centers, but security agencies later said that 4,942 of the polling stations would be closed due to security reasons.

After the election, the IEC said 4,684 polling centers (26,568 polling stations) were open on the Election Day, but later said the figures were not final. The IEC tally center report indicates that 26,580 polling stations were open on Election Day.

On 2 November, IEC officials told a press conference they had received 1,843,107 biometric votes in line with information from Dermalog Company out of a total of 1,929,333 biometrically verified ballots.

It said 86,226 votes did not meet the criteria due to problems in photographs, finger-prints and repeated attachment of election voter registration certificate stickers.

IEC Secretariat:

The IEC secretariat acknowledged that results forms from some polling stations that were open on Election Day but nobody went there for voting have not arrived to the IEC so far.

Habib Rahmand Nang, head of the IEC secretariat, said 370 polling stations remained open on the Election Day where no ballot was cast.

“According to our site operation report, the result sheets of 643 polling stations are yet to return to the IEC while digital forms of some polling stations have reached the digital centre.”

Referring to polling stations where nobody visited to cast their ballots, he said it demonstrated transparency and IEC determination of being neutral and committed to free and fair polls.

He further said after the IEC decision, votes in 643 polling stations would be recounted.

The IEC has earlier announced that the preliminary election result will be announced on November 14.

Election Monitors:

Election monitors also confirmed non-participation of voters in some polling stations and non-transfer of election materials from some polling stations to the IEC.

Yousuf Rashid, executive head of the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA), said insecurity, low participation of people in election and availability of more polling stations at one centre were main reasons that votes were not polled in some polling stations.

He said according to their information, the turnout in some polling stations was zero or very low.

“Our colleagues in the IEC monitored the arrival of election materials, they reported that election materials of some polling stations from some provinces did not reach the IEC and acknowledged that similar flaws and shortcomings were noticed in some other work areas of IEC as well,” he said.

He recommended the IEC to be more careful and conscious regarding the public vote and added public mandate should be carefully looked after and transparent votes should be separated from fraudulent votes.

Azizullah Hamdard

Hits: 4743