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           Afghan Presidential Vote Audit Continues Despite Glitches

   by Ayaz Gul

   The internationally-supervised slow-moving audit of 8.1 million Afghan
   votes from last month's disputed presidential runoff resumed Sunday, a
   day after differences between the rival candidates over ballot scrutiny
   led to its temporary suspension.

   The audit began Thursday under the direct supervision of the United
   Nations and in the presence of the candidates' agents, media, and
   foreign and local observers.

   But the process has been marred by walkouts by representatives of
   presidential candidates, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani.

   The latest dispute emerged Saturday when differences on how to treat
   ballot papers not signed "properly" by voters prompted the Independent
   Election Commission to suspend the audit.

   But the commission said with the help of U.N. experts the audit resumed
   Sunday.

   Analysts anticipated problems from the outset because there were no
   "clearly defined rules."

   "It felt like the referee had blown his whistle and the football match
   had started, not almost quite sure what a goal was," said Kate Clark of
   the Kabul-based Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN), who has been
   closely monitoring the vote scrutiny.

   "So it was bound to cause trouble, because at the moment it is a
   technical issue, but it is also deeply, deeply political, and actually
   both teams are looking for how they can maximize their share of the
   vote," she said.

   Last week U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry persuaded the candidates
   to agree to a full audit of the contentious runoff vote.

   Candidate Abdullah had alleged "industrial scale fraud" with the
   support of outgoing President Hamid Karzai to help Ghani, and the Ghani
   campaign accused Abdullah of vote rigging in his traditional political
   strongholds.

   But in the Kerry-mediated agreement, Abdullah and Ghani committed to
   abide by the audit results.

   "There is significant international community oversight as well as
   candidate oversight in the process of counting those ballots. The most
   encouraging thing is both candidates are very responsible they know the
   consequence of the political transition process and they have agreed to
   accept the outcome of the ballot with certain parameters and those
   parameters are now in place, said U.S. Commander of NATO-led forces in
   Afghanistan, General Joseph Dunford.

   In comments last week, Dunford said he is optimistic the process - and
   outcome - will be accepted by both candidates and the Afghan people.

   Analyst Clark said a key NATO conference is due September 3 to devise
   its future plans, and Afghanistan can barely afford further delays in
   its much-awaited political transitions.

   "NATO wants to get things sorted it wants the BSA, the Bilateral
   Security Agreement, signed with America. If President Karzai is still
   in place that will not be signed and NATO cannot begin to start
   planning for post-2014 military support the Afghans need. That is why
   there is a sense of urgency but of course it depends on the audit and
   it is going painfully slow at the moment," Clark said.
   Most NATO-led forces will withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of this
   year.

   A security agreement between Kabul and Washington to allow a residual
   foreign force stay in the country for counterterrorism missions,
   advising, assisting and equipping Afghan forces is awaiting signatures
   by the new Afghan president, because Karzai has refused to do so and
   left to for his successor.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/afghan-presidential-vote-audit-contin
   ues-despite-glitches/1961548.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/afghan-presidential-vote-audit-continues-despite-glitches/1961548.html