120 Afghan candidates accused
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A commissioner of UN-backed Afghan Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) on Sunday said the body is currently probing the cases with regard to electoral violation committed by 120 more candidates of the country's legislative elections held on Sept. 18.
"The ECC is adjudicating electoral violation cases leveled against 120 candidates including 96 contesters referred by the country's election body - Independent Election Commission (IEC) and 24 others by security institutions," Ahmad Zia Rafat told reporters at a news conference in Kabul.
Without naming any candidates, Rafat further said that if the ECC establishes the accuracy of allegations leveled against these individuals, penalties may follow which can include exclusion of candidates from the election process, nullification of votes received, and even referral to the prosecutorial authorities.
This is the second batch of the contesters who have been charged for involving in fraud and vote rigging. Previously 175 other election competitors had been introduced to the election watchdog to probe the leveled allegations against them.
He also said that ECC is grating five days from sending notice to the alleged candidates to defend themselves against the allegations, he emphasized.
Briefing reporters on the number of complaints, Rafat said ECC had received 5,315 post-election complaints as of Sunday and of these 1,797 ceases have been adjudicated and the decisions have been posted on ECC website.
"Of those complaints over 2,000 have been classified as category A allegations, if proved may affect the election results in several polling stations," he further said.
The Sept. 18 polls was the second Afghan parliamentary election since the collapse of Taliban regime in 2001 held to elect members of the 249-seat Wolesi Jirga or Lower House of Afghanistan for the next five years.
Over 2,500 candidates including more than 400 women had contested the election and the final results are expected to be announced within three weeks.
Under the Afghan electoral law the final results would not be announced unless all complaints are adjudicated.
Over 4 million Afghans out of 11.4 million eligible voters braved Taliban attacks and had cast their votes on the voting day.
