The results of this year's Provincial Council elections were announced after over four and a half months delay. According to the Independent Election Commission (IEC), 458 individuals won seats on provincial councils around the country, and 97 of them are women.

When asked about the cause of the months of delay, the Independent Election Commission Chairman said it was the result of the Electoral Complaints Commission's (ECC) review of complaints.

"All the results were with the Electoral Complaints Commission for the past four months and 19 days and we did not have access to them to announce them," IEC Chairman Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani said.

The IEC had planned to announce the results at 2:00pm on Saturday, but ended up doing it around 4:00pm.

The IEC has received a good deal of criticism over its performance during this year's election process, especially from Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah and his supporters. Indeed, reform in the election commissions was part of the national unity agreement made between Abdullah and President Ashraf Ghani.

"If Dr. Abdullah Abdullah or any other government official wants to bring reform in the IEC or any other institution, we accept it, but only if its based on the law," Nuristani said on Saturday.

The IEC said that 2,590 individuals ran in the provincial council elections. And that out of 6,097,992 votes, in the end, 747,000 ballots were discarded by the audit.