Abdullah’s supporters prevent vote recount in 12 provinces

KABUL (Pajhwok): The vote recounting process has been stopped in 12 provinces but completed in two provinces, Pajhwok Afghan News reliably learned on Tuesday.

The presidential elections were held on September 28, featuring 14 candidates.

Earlier, the date for announcement of preliminary polls was set October 19, but later the Independent Election Commission (IEC) set November 14 new date for the announcement.

The IEC had said it would start recount and audit process of over 8,000 polling stations on November 10^th in its provincial offices.

But the Stability and Partnership team led by Dr. Abdullah Abdullah demanded a halt to the recount process and subsequently his supporters stopped the recount process in 12 provinces.

Similarly, nine more presidential candidates expressed opposition to the vote recount, but the State Builder team led by Ashraf Ghani supported the move.

Provinces where vote recount faced hurdles

The Stability and Partnership team stopped the vote recount and audit process in Sar-i-Pul, Parwan, Panjshir, Jawzjan, Samangan, Ghor, Badakhshan, Daikundi, Takhar, Baghlan, Helmand and Fayarb provinces.

The Stability and Partnership team leader for Sar-i-Pul province said he had warned the local IEC office against the vote recount. He said they will lock the IEC office gate if they dared to start the process.

IEC head Murtaza Alamizada said no delegation from the central IEC office has arrived in the province so far.

Abdul Qahar Wahat, regional IEC office head in Parwan, confirmed to Pajhwok that supporters of Stability and Partnership team locked their gate on Monday and the gate remained locked.

Ghulam Hussain Sharif, IEC head in Panjshir, said the Stability and Partnership stopped the vote recount and audit process and locked the office.

Almas Aurang, IEC office head in Jawzjan, said the Stability and Partnership team warned them of staging a massive protest if they started the vote recount. “Therefore, we have not launched the process. “

From Samangan, Pajhwok Afghan News reporters said supporters of the Stability and Partnership team stopped the vote recount process in the afternoon and locked the IEC area where the vote recount process was underway.

Mohammad Nazir Nasrat, deputy operational director for Ghor IEC office, said they started the vote recount process on Monday morning, but supporters of the Stability and Partnership team obstructed the process and locked the doors of the commission.

Eng. Mohammad Din Khawani, foreign affairs in-charge at IEC office in Badakhshan province, said the process of recounting votes was expected to start and a delegation from central IEC office had also arrived in the province but supporters of Abdullah, Nabil and Hekmatyar halted the process. 

Amanullah Habibi, IEC head in Daikundi province, said the vote recount at 63 polling stations was expected but the Stability and Partnership team stopped the process and did not allow the process to begin.

The IEC office gate in Takhar province has been locked by Abdullah’s supporters and is not allowing the recount process to be launched.

In Baghlan, supporters of the Stability and Partnership team stopped the vote recount process.

In Helmand, the Stability and Partnership team stopped the vote recount process and locked the door of IEC office.

Similarly in Faryab, the Stability and Partnership team stopped the process of vote recount in the afternoon. The process started in the morning.

Provinces where vote recount process has been started

According to Pajhwok Afghan News reports, the vote recount and audit process has been launched in 22 provinces and the process is underway normally but some presidential candidates have boycotted the process.

The vote recount process is smoothly underway in Bamyan, Kandahar, Khost, Paktia, Farah, Badghis, Nimroz, Balkh, Nangarhar, Kapisa, Maidan Wardak, Zabul, Kunduz, Paktika, Laghman, Nuristan, Uruzgan, Herat, Logar, Kunar and Kabul.

In Badghis and Kapeia, the recount and audit process of votes has been completed.

Mohammad Qasim Qaseem, IEC office head in Bamyan, said they started the vote recount process on the directives of central IEC office but Dr. Abdullah, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Nabil’s teams boycotted the process.

Emal Abdullah, head of IEC office in Kandahar, said they started the votes recount process and so far votes of 10 polling stations had been recounted. He said the process kicked off when election teams of Abdullah, Nabil and Hekmatyar boycotted the process   and staged protest in front of their office.

In Khost, the vote recount process has been boycotted by the Stability and Partnership and Hekmatyar’s teams.

In Paktia, the Stability and Partnership and Hekmatyar’s teams boycotted the vote recount and audit process.

 IEC Head Hawa Alam Nuristani told reporters in Kabul that the vote recount and audit process had beeeen started in 20 provinces but candidates created hurdlers for the process in 14 provinces.

She said if candidates did not cooperate, the announcement of preliminary polls on November 14 will be difficult for them.

IEC Acting Spokesperson Zabihullah Sadaat said that a formal letter has been sent to election candidates to cooperate with the Commission in the recount and audit process.

He said if presidential candidates did not cooperate with the IEC despite the formal letter sent to them, security forces will facilitate IEC officials in the recount process.

Behishta Arghand

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