Supporters of a Wolesi Jirga candidate on Thursday held a protest demonstration in central Logar province against what they said invalidation of their ‘legitimate votes’.

Noor Ajab, one of the protestors in Pul-i-Alam, the provincial capital, said the Independent Election Commission (IEC) had invalidated their clean votes they polled for Wolesi Jirga candidate Shapur Hasanzai.
“Our legal votes have been invalidated, but the fraudulent votes of others were declared valid and were counted,” he said.
Wolesi Jirga candidate Shapur Hasanzai said his supporters braved security threats and voted for him in the Wolesi Jirga elections.  He warned if the IEC did injustice with him, he would shut the local office’s doors.
Rahmtaullah Haqmal, head of the provincial Independent Electoral Complaints Commission, told Pajhwok Afghan News that they had received 406 complaints about issues in the election commission.
He said some votes had been invalidated as part of addressing the complaints while votes from six polling stations had been quarantined.
He also accused the IEC of wrongdoings and said: “The IEC was involved in corruption at some polling stations where some candidates had no votes but votes were entered in the database for them.”
IEC officials refused to comment about the allegation, but earlier the provincial IEC head Abdul Rahman Muhib had admitted some local IEC office employees worked in the interest of certain candidates.
He had said some candidates offered money to his employees to ensure their victory in the elections through fraud and rigging.