KABUL, July 2 (AFP): Afghanistan's delayed presidential election result will be announced on Monday, officials said, as the two candidates wrangle over alleged fraud in a political crisis that threatens the country's first democratic transfer of power.
The five-day delay is to allow an audit of nearly 2,000 of the 23,000 polling stations nationwide in an anti-fraud audit designed to raise confidence in the vote-counting process.
But both Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah say they won on clean votes, and neither appears prepared to accept defeat-triggering the prospect of a power struggle as US-led troops withdraw after 13 years of fighting the Taliban.
"The preliminary result was supposed to be announced today, but because of the inspection of ballot boxes in 1,930 polling stations, it was delayed," Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) chief, said Wednesday.
"This is to guarantee transparency... we don't give in to any pressure on us."
The preliminary result will include all the legitimate votes cast in the June 14 head-to-head run-off election.
Following a period for complaints to be heard, the final result is now expected on July 24.
Afghan election result delayed until Monday for fraud audit
FE Team | Published: July 03, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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