The Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Saturday apologized to the people for a delay in the announcement of preliminary results of parliamentary elections for Kabul province but said the results will be announced in the near future.

The commission said bringing more transparency in the process was the reason for a delay in the announcement. 

The parliamentary elections were held last year in October. According to the IEC, over three million Afghans voted in the elections.  

The election commission has announced preliminary results for 33 constituencies out of 35 constituencies. 

“We apologize that due to problems the results of Kabul elections have not been announced so far,” the IEC spokesman Hafizullah Hashemi said. “Our colleagues worked have hard full time and have almost finalized the results. We hope that the results will be announced officially today (Saturday) or tomorrow (Sunday).”

While the election commission said transparency was the reason behind elections results delay, but a number of institutions overseeing elections process said “illegal” demands by a number of officials of the commission from a number of candidates, was one of the reasons of the delay. 

The institutions on Friday said that secret deals between the election commission and a number of candidates has delayed the results announcement. 

“We have been given reports about deals and corruption,” said Naeem Ayubzada, CEO of Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan. 

“There are lots of problems and the commission cannot resolve all of them. I believe that if elections results are announced, it will be followed by lots of complaints,” said Yusuf Rasheed, CEO of Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan. 

“I hope that the electoral complaints commission fulfills its job properly to make this national process transparent,” said Qazi Abdul Rahim, an MP.  

The election commission however rejected the claims. 

The Independent Electoral Complaint Commission (IECC) meanwhile said they have completed the assessment of complaints regarding 10 provinces andthat the final decision in this respect will be sent to the IEC in the near future. 

“The process of sending the results (of electoral complaints assessment) was delayed for one or two days due to some problems. We will send the results of 10 provinces today (Saturday) or tomorrow (Sunday),” IECC spokesman Ali Reza Rouhani said. 

Rouhani said they have received around 3,000 complaints since the announcement of preliminary results of the parliamentary elections.  

Tensions On Votes Without Biometric

Following claims on fraud in the parliamentary elections, some lawmakers in a joint statement called on the election commissions to count only the votes cast by use of biometric system. 

The MPs said the votes cast without biometric should be recognized invalid. 

“Based on the Wolesi Jirga’s (Lower House of Parliament) approval, the votes cast by using biometric should be recognized valid and votes without biometric should not be recognized valid,” Wolesi Jirga Speaker Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi said. 

The election commission however said in some places the biometric devices faced technical problems on the election day.

The commission will validate over one million votes which have been cast without use of biometric system.

“If we had a list of voters recorded in the biometric system, we would not face any challenge,” IEC spokesman Hashemi said. 

“The Independent Electoral Complaints Commission continues its efforts to have a final assessment on every process,” Rouhani said.

Electoral watchdog organizations said less than two million votes have been cast by biometric system while the commissions has said that it is at least three million.  

“Our reports indicate that biometric system has not been used to the extent the commission claims and based on our reports and monitoring, the commission’s statistics (on use of biometric system in elections) are not accurate,” said Naeem Ayubzada, CEO of Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan.