Afghanistan to Announce Initial Results of Election within 2 Weeks
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - A senior member of the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan said the initial results of the Presidential run-off election will be announced on July 2, while the final results will be officially announced late July.
“The vote-counting process started on Saturday in polling stations and then the results would be reported to Kabul,“ Muhammad Aziz Bakhtiari told the Tasnim News Agency.
The official said in the run-off round there were much fewer problems and tensions, reiterating that there were no serious challenges during the election.
On Saturday, Afghan voters began going to the polling stations around the country to choose between former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and economist Ashraf Ghani. Outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai also cast his ballot.
The Independent Election Commission (IEC) prepared a total of 6,365 polling centers, to accommodate Afghan voters as they voted for a new President on 14 June.
These polling centers housed a total of 23,136 polling stations. This was more than the number of polling stations opened on April 5. The IEC intended to reduce the average number of voters at each polling station and, ultimately, reduced the time required by each voter to queue before casting his or her ballot.
More than forty percent of polling stations (9,324) were also reserved exclusively for women and were equipped with female election and security staff.
