Afghanistan’s election audit needs to be fast and decisive to avert the threat of spiralling instability as US troops pull out, but attempts to speed up the process are bogged down in squabbles and confusion. Election officials are sorting through more than eight million votes in front of domestic observers, international monitors and representatives from the two presidential candidates. Every individual vote is physically examined and, if either campaign team complains, it is put to one side for further assessment. In a sweltering warehouse in Kabul on Monday, a UN official peered at a row of disputed ballot papers from the eastern province of Paktika — a hotbed of alleged fraud on polling day more than seven weeks ago. Both campaign teams had alleged that some papers showed suspiciously similar tick marks for their opponent, leading to a noisy four-hour dispute over one single ballot box. “We have a pattern here,” the adjudicating UN official said, pointing at some ticks. “But it is only three in a row, so it is ok. Now let’s look at the other side’s complaints.”
By the end of the morning shift, disputes still raged over the box — just one of the nearly 23,000 being checked after Abdullah Abdullah rejected preliminary results that gave victory to his poll rival Ashraf Ghani.
“Arguments over ticks are among the main issues,” Salim Paktin, a Ghani team representative said.
“Also, there are often more votes in a box than ID card numbers collected at the polling station, or sometimes no stamp on the back of the paper.
“If the two sides and the IEC (Independent Election Commission) official can’t agree, then we call in the UN technical experts.”
Full Article: The Peninsula Qatar – Snags pile up at Afghan poll audit.