Originally posted by the Voice of America.
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Afghan Election Results Delayed

Ayaz Gul

   ISLAMABAD - Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC)
   confirmed Saturday it haddelayed the planned release of preliminary
   results of the Sept.28 presidential polls.
   The commission's chief, HawaAlamNuristani, made the widely anticipated
   announcement at a late evening news conference in Kabul on the day the
   commission was supposed to officially deliver first results.
   Nuristani apologized to Afghans for not being able to meet the
   deadline,but she defended the decision to delay the results, saying it
   would"further ensure the transparency of the[electoral]process" and
   restore the people's confidence in it.
   The chief election commissioner promised to release preliminary results
   as soon as possible but did not say exactly whenthat would happen.
   Two senior IEC members, while speaking to VOA on Friday, predicted
   results would be delayed by at least one week.

   Problems from the start
   Election officials saidthey hadfrom the outset faced issues in
   collecting and transferring massive amounts of data to the main IEC
   computer server from biometric devices used to record voter
   fingerprints and pictures. A time-consuming exercise of identifying
   fraudulent voteswas cited as another major factor for the slow data
   entry.
   The fourth Afghan presidential electionwas already under scrutiny for a
   record-low turnout of about26 percent and allegations of fraud. The
   final turnoutwas expected to drop further as the IECwas expected to
   disqualify an estimated 700,000 of the 2.7 million votes cast last
   monthfor not meeting anti-fraud rules.

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