IECC criticized for delayed rulings on appeals

KABUL (Tolo News): The Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) said that another twelve days will be needed to assess the appeals filed by the campaign teams. These appeals were filed against the initial decisions made by the IECC branch offices in the provinces.

This comes as the deadline for the assessments of the appeals ends within a week. “Long ago, members of the IECC had announced the completion of their work…but in the provinces like Kabul, the work was still going on against what they had announced,” said Mohammad Yousuf Rashid, Executive Director of Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan (FEFA).

“If a decision is made about exceptional cases, the work burden will be lessened and all complaints, objections and decisions which were made at the province level will be addressed,” said Qutbuddin Roydar, a member of IECC. The IECC so far has not managed to issue a final verdict on the 300,000 disputed votes and the recounting of over 5,000 polling sites.

The election campaign teams have filed over 6,000 appeals against the decisions of the IECC’s provincial office. On January 17, election campaign teams strongly criticized the provincial offices of the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) for issuing inconsistent decisions on complaints that are similar in nature.

The IECC has rejected nearly 10,000 out of 16,500 complaints, because of a lack of evidence, in the provinces. Election observers meanwhile say that the IECC faces a big responsibility when it comes to making a final decision about the 300,000 disputed votes–those votes considered “fraudulent” by Abdullah’s campaign and others– in the next two weeks.