IEC says would seek government's help to remove recount hurdle

Supporters of candidates have blocked partial poll recount in several provinces of the country, contending many of the ballots considered valid by the commission are fake.
“If the problem is not resolved, considering the Constitution and Election Law, IEC will have to implement the electoral system and seek the government’s help in this regard so that the government takes action in seven provinces according to law,” said Mirza Mohammad Haqparast, a spokesman for IEC.
Several presidential candidates have called on IEC to invalidate around 300,000 out of the 1.8 million votes from the 28 September election.
They wanted these excluded before the IEC started auditing and recounting the votes from more than 8,000 polling stations.
Habib Ur Rahman Nang, head of IEC’s secretariat, said that they had received recount results from 20 provinces.
Preliminary result from the vote was originally scheduled to be announced on October 19, but it has been postponed two times and it is unclear when it would be released.
Zabih Sadat, an IEC’s spokesman, said that the commission was seeking to announce the results as soon as possible.