Rift deepens in election tribunal over bogus votes

KABUL (AT News): There are deep differences between commissioners at the independent electoral complaint commission, a reason causing delay of the final election results to be announced, Yousuf Rashid, head of the free and fair election forum of Afghanistan said.

Rashid called on the commission on Sunday to share the reasons of postponement in result announcement with the people.

He said that commissioners of the electoral complaint commission have differences on the 300,000 controversial votes.

A number presidential runners claim that 300,000 polls were fraudulent, asking the electoral bodies to invalidate them, but the independent election commission insists on the separation of valid and invalid votes after a recount.

Officials at the electoral complaint commission say that everything was done with the 300,000 votes, but only the commissioners needed to make decision whether to announce them valid or invalidate them.

The officials say they would complete works on the controversial votes within a couple of days.

But the electoral watchdogs express concerns over postponement in the process, saying it was not clear when the commissioners would make decision on the 300,000 votes.