In Kabul Afghanistan the preliminary election that took place on September 18th were scheduled to have the results announced this Sunday, but the event was postponed by Afghan and western official due to fraud. Nearly 25 percent of the votes are likely to be thrown out.
The fraud, which involved ballot-box stuffing, was done by citizens being forced to cast their votes at gunpoint, corrupt election officials and security forces complicit with corrupt candidates. This is expected to mean that 800,000 to a million votes will be pulled.
Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
Afghan election observers watched as the vote counting began at a high school after the polls closed Sept. 18.
The Afghan Independent Election Commission, which is in charge of overseeing the counting, has refused to disclose the vote count that could be thrown out. It has been said that it decided to nullify all or part of the votes that were cast at 430 polling places while another 830 sites are being audited.
Until now an honest vote-count process has been recognized, but the last minute delay has caused for candidates to stress over the results at the capital in Kabul.
An e-mailed statement was released only two hours before the planned announcement of the results stating the commission would be making the announcement on Wednesday. "The reason for the delay in results is the be more accurate and precise," the announcement said.
This puts a huge pressure on the commission to rightfully change the outcome. "You can do a lot of mischief in three days," said a Western observer knowledgeable about the election process.
The commission worked strenuously through the weekend until 4 a.a. Sunday to come close in completing the results. Up until the last minute the commission was still planning on announcing the results on Sunday.
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