Afghan election recount delayed again

A recount of votes in the Afghan election was suspended again Saturday, following concerns expressed by Abdullah Abdullah's campaign regarding the criteria used for invalidating fraudulent votes, Afghan local media reported.

Former Foreign Minister Abdullah and former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani agreed to the inspection of all 8.1 million ballots cast in the June 14 poll in a deal brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, but the recount has since faced several suspensions as the candidates sparred over how to disqualify ballots.

The audit had been expected to resume on Saturday after the U.N. and the country's Independent Election Commission (IEC) said both candidates had agreed to a U.N.-backed proposal.

Abdullah's observers, however, did not show up at the election commission in Kabul, with his spokesman saying they were still negotiating with the U.N.

"The IEC has adopted the U.N. proposal but we still have our observations," Abdullah's spokesman Mujib Rahman Rahimi told AFP.

"What happens today is not a boycott, it is not an attempt to disrupt the process, the issue is on how to maximize the criteria for invalidation," he said.

The U.N. expects the audit to restart on Sunday after the IEC agreed to another 24-hour delay. The third delay so far in the vote audit process.

"The audit process will resume tomorrow and god willing we are not thinking of any more delay," IEC chairman Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani said, adding the postponement was to allow Abdullah to finalize the audit agreement with the U.N.

Preliminary results from the June 14 run-off showed Ghani ahead of Abdullah, with the latter claiming "industrial-scale" fraud had denied him victory.

The bitter impasse over the vote to succeed President Hamid Karzai has raised fears of a return to the ethnic violence of the 1990s.

In a bid to pull the country back from the brink of crisis, Kerry flew into Kabul early last month and persuaded the two opponents to agree to the audit.

The process has since fallen behind its initial three week schedule as the rival campaign teams fought over disputed ballot papers.

A U.S. State Department official said Saturday Kerry had spoken to both Abdullah and Ghani on Friday to reiterate support for the political framework.

"He stressed the urgency ... of accelerating the post-election audit and implementing the political framework agreement," the official said.

The timetable for the new president to be inaugurated on August 2 has been abandoned and no new date has been set.

The political wrangling also comes during a Taliban spring offensive that has seen an escalation in fighting and brazen attacks targeting Kabul as well as the volatile south and east of the country, with U.S.-led foreign forces due to leave at the end of this year.

AFP