Democracy International issued the following press release today.

Kabul, Afghanistan – The planned recount and audit of results from Afghanistan’s August 20 Presidential Election must proceed in a transparent and timely manner if the election is to have any legitimacy in the eyes of the Afghan people or the international community, Democracy International said on Thursday. “Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission and Electoral Complaints Commission were established to protect the integrity of the electoral process,” said DI Principal Glenn Cowan. “Their work is now at its most crucial stage.”

Unless satisfactorily addressed, credible reports of ballot stuffing and other irregularities being raised by domestic and international observers, the media, the diplomatic community and others will undermine the electoral process. The preliminary results released yesterday by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) include a large number of potentially fraudulent votes that need to be investigated further before final results are certified. The recount and audit process mandated by the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) is essential to the credibility of the election and should receive the full support of the international community and Afghan political leaders.

“The decision by the ECC to require this audit presents an opportunity to legitimize the electoral process by purging fraudulent results from the tally”, said Cowan. “The results of this effort will determine the legitimacy of this election and it should be supported wholeheartedly by the international community.”

The Afghan government and all political actors should allow the IEC and ECC to conduct the audit without interference and produce a final certified result that reflects the legitimate votes actually cast by the Afghan people as accurately as possible.

Next Steps for the IEC and ECC

The IEC and the ECC should quickly establish and make public detailed procedures and a timeline for how the audit will be conducted, including clear standards by which to determine the validity of a polling station’s results. The process should be open to all interested parties, including candidate agents, the media, and domestic and international observers, and the results of the audit should be immediately and publicly disseminated.

The IEC should take this opportunity to release more detailed information on the preliminary results, including explanations for any polling station results it has invalidated or quarantined. There have been numerous instances of unexplained changes in provincial results after the IEC has released them, which has further contributed to the current perception of widespread fraud.

The IEC should also release results for the Provincial Council elections. These results should already be tallied and will provide a useful cross-check against which to compare the Presidential results. They are important in their own right and should not be left in limbo during the audit process.

Finally, those found to have committed fraud should be prosecuted as provided by law. A culture of electoral fraud should not be tolerated by the Afghan government or the Afghan people.

The ECC and the IEC were created to ensure the legitimacy of Afghanistan’s elections. These organizations must work together to address the issues before them to help restore the credibility of their country’s electoral process.