More than 4 Million Voted in the Afghan Poll: IEC

IEC announced on Sunday that 4 million Afghans had voted in the parliamentary elections held on Saturday, amid Taliban attacks causing heavy civilian casualties

Vote counting is completed in 22 of the 34 provinces in the country, and the ballot boxes are transported to the provincial centres, Fazal Ahmad Manawi, head of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) told reporters in a conference in Kabul on Sunday.

He said that 304 polling stations were closed during the elections, and there are no reports about 157 other closed polling centres.

Although the exact number of voters is not clear yet, but according to reports so far, more than 4 million Afghans have participated in the vote, IEC says.

"Our figures are still not clear about the exact number of voters in the elections, but we can surely say that the number of voters has exceeded 4 million - that means above 40 percent more than we had expected," Manawi told reporters.

IEC has confirmed electoral fraud, including the use of fake voter cards in favour of certain candidates, but it says it will strictly take action against those who have commited fraud.

"Our first options were the school buildings to be used as polling stations and we did not have better choice than that. But if a teacher or a headteacher has done something illegally in favour of any candidate, and if a complaint is registered about it, the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) will investigate about it," he added.

According to the recent reports by IEC, three of its employees were abducted and then killed in Chimtal district of Balkh province and 13 other IEC employees were injured on the elections day.

According to the recent figures by IEC, militants had carried out 93 attacks on polling stations, and 11 attacks on vehicles transporting ballot boxes.

Head of the IEC also said that 21 voters were killed on the elections day and 46 others were wounded.

The tally of votes from all over Afghanistan is expected to be finished very soon and the preliminary results will be announced within 20 days. The final results will be officially announced by the end of October after studies by ECC are finalised.