Vote count continues, partial results emerging

Vote counting was proceeding across the country one week after Afghanistan's first general elections in three decades, with almost 20 percent of the votes counted, electoral officials said on Sunday. "Counting is well under way and in full compliance with the United Nations standards, with 19 percent of the overall count done," Peter Erben, chief electoral officer at the Afghan-UN Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB), said in the Afghan capital, Kabul, noting in some of the southern provinces, such as Zabul and Nimruz, well over 65 percent votes had already been counted. Vote tallying from all 34 provinces is in progress at 32 provincial counting centres across Afghanistan, with one centre for every province, while ballots from Kunar and Nuristan provinces are being counted in eastern Nangarhar province. Several provinces were expected to finish their vote counting towards the end of this week, although complete results weren’t expected until early October, Erben said, adding that the transportation of ballots from over 6,000 polling centres across the Central Asian state had already been completed. Of the 12.5 million eligible Afghan voters, almost 7 million took part in the polls to elect a national legislature and 34 provincial councils for a five-year term. Almost 5,800 candidates contested the poll, including over 2,700 for the 249-seat Wolesi Jirga (lower house of parliament) and more than 3,000 for 420 seats in the provincial councils. Once results from each of the provinces are released, a five-day time period will be provided for candidates and their agents to appeal the results, followed by a thorough auditing. "Only then will the JEMB release certified results for all the Wolesi Jirga and provincial council seats," Erben explained, adding those ballot boxes found to contain irregularities would be put aside. According to the JEMB, voter turnout in the historic polls was well over 50 percent; with 43 percent of all votes cast belonging to women and 57 percent belonging to men.