Officials from the election commission in southern Kandahar province said Sunday that they are recounting most of the votes cast in the province.  

Nematullah Wardak, the head of Kandahar election commission, said based on a decision made by the Independent Election Commission 90 percent of votes will be recounted in Kandahar. 

“Staff based at the central office are recounting votes from 1,200 polling stations. The candidates also wanted votes to be recounted,” said Wardak. 

In the meantime, a number of parliamentary election candidates said IEC officials in Kandahar are supporting candidates and want to rig the results. 

The candidates said Kandahar election commission officials are paving the ground for electoral fraud for a number of specific candidates.

An IEC team has meanwhile gone to Kandahar to monitor the recounting process.

“The election commission and the team takes  money from some candidates and increases their votes when they did not have any votes on the main list. Those who had gained no votes, will be given hundreds of votes,” Shekiba Hashemi, a candidate said. 

Some other candidates said they asked the election commission to recount all the votes, but the commission is only recounting votes of 1,200 polling stations.

“This move has been made based on the request of a number of candidates. While all the candidates had asked that all the votes should be recounted,” Mohibullah, a representative of a candidate said. 

However, the team from Kabul that is monitoring  the recount process said it is being handled transparently. 

“We reject their claims. We have come here to collect the result forms that did not meet the candidates and the commission’s criteria. We will separate the valid votes from fraudulent votes,” Abdul Nasir Mohamand, head of the IEC’s results center in Kandahar. 

Kandahar election commission figures show that 135,000 votes were cast on election day in the province - except for insecure districts Nish and Maroof where no elections were held.