Protesters demand halt to inspection, recount of Kabul votes

Monitoring Desk

KABUL: A number of protesters in capital Kabul demanded invalidation, halt to the recount of Kabul votes and trial of commissioners and those who committed rigging in the court.

They also warned wide-spread protests if their demand was ignored. The Wolesi Jirga elections were conducted on October 20-21 in almost all provinces of the country with huge allegations of rigging.

Over 20 unsuccessful candidates planned to conduct a protesting really and share their demands with the UNAMA but it was postponed due to security threats.

Erfanullah Erfan, a Wolesi Jirga candidate who was part of the protest, said he and other candidates decided to launch a peaceful rally but unfortunately it was not allowed by police citing security threats.

“We planned to stress over the invalidation of vote, halt to the recount process and trial of commissioners and those who committed fraud during election and share our concern with the UNAMA, but we were not allowed,” he said. He said the democratic right of the people had been undermined in the Kabul election and demanded all the votes to be invalidated.

Erfan accused the election bodies commissioners over bribe and favoritism and said: “A fake list of winners had been published and shared by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) which is not acceptable to us.”

Mahmood Haidari, another protester, termed the polls as rigged and fraudulent and claimed the IEC and Independent Electoral Complaint Commission facilitated rigging and fraud during polls.

IEC spokesman Abdul Aziz Ibrahimi said inspection and recount of 120 polling booths from Kabul was underway following the direction of the IECC.

He said the inspection process was underway in the presence of representatives from political parties, Wolesi Jirga members, election watchdogs and IECC. (Pajhwok)