Ballots of 142 more polling centers invalidated: Afghan election cheif

The Chief of Afghan Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Saturday announced that ballots of 142 more polling centers, in the country's second parliamentary polls held on Sept. 18, have been invalidated throughout the country.

"During the checking of the suspicious results forms retrieved from all the 34 provinces of the country, IEC has decided to invalidate the votes of 142 polling centers," Fazal Ahmad Manawi told reporters here.

He said the total number of polling centers that were announced with annul ballots and invalidated, has increased to 442 across the country.

He made this announcement in the wake of reported vote-rigging, alleged violation of electoral law on the voting day and receiving hundreds of complaints accusing powerful figures of attempting to influence the election results.

However, the date for announcing preliminary results from Oct. 9 has been postponed to Oct. 17, according to Manawi.

Final certified results of the second ever direct legislative votes since the collapse of Taliban regime in late 2001 is expected to be announced on Oct. 30 but Manawi confirmed that the date may be delayed due to postponement of preliminary poll results.

Over 2,500 candidates had contested the election to secure 249- seat Wolesi Jirga or Lower House of Afghanistan parliament for the next five years.

Source: Xinhua