Full audit of Afghanistan presidential votes delayed

The independent election commission (IEC) officials informed of a delay regarding the full audit of votes from the runoff presidential election.

IEC Chief, Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani said the independent election commission could not start the full audit of the votes as the agreement between the two presidential contenders was reached without considering the issues of the election commission. Nuristani further added that the UN mission in Afghanistan has also requested to delay the audit of the votes until the international election observers arrives.

He said the audit of the votes is expected to start on Wednesday once the international election observers arrives in Kabul.

Nuristani also added that the election commission is busy with the preparation of the operational programs for the audit fo the votes.

The agreement to fully audit the runoff election votes was reached between the two presidential contenders following the mediation of the US Secretary of State John Kerry.

The two candidates agreed that the audit process should take place in Kabul and all the votes from the capital and other provinces will be audited in Kabul. Nuristani said the preparations for the operational launch of the votes audit will be completed by Tuesday and practical audit will be launched on coming Wednesday.

The observers of the two electoral teams will also monitor the votes audit and the two candidates have vowed to abide by the results of the extensive audit.