Afghan election official resigns amid fraud claims

A senior Afghan election official has stepped down amid a deepening crisis over allegations of fraud in the country’s runoff presidential election.

Zia-ul-Haq Amarkhail, head of the secretariat of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), resigned on Monday after team of presidential candidate, Abdullah Abdullah, released recordings, accusing him of misdeeds in the transfer of unused ballots during the June 14 run-off poll.

The total 13-minute audio files, which are of poor quality, purportedly contain conversations among Amarkhail, other IEC officials and a member of rival presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani’s campaign.

In one recording, Amarkhail supposedly reassures the member of Ghani’s team that the IEC staff will be “used” in favor of his election.

However, Amarkhail denied all charges against him and defended the conduct of the June 14 balloting.

“I want to say that there has not been any pressure on me to resign,” he said at a news conference, adding, “The only reason for my resignation is the national interest of my country.”

Amarkhail also called on Abdullah, who has suspended cooperation with the vote counting process, to end his boycott and “respect the code of conduct that he had signed with the commission on the first day.”

“The audio recordings regarding fraud were fake,” he said.

Abdullah says evidence suggests that some ballot boxes were filled with votes a day before the run-off election.

The presidential candidate has even alleged that the voter turnout was higher than the number of eligible voters in several provinces.

Reports on the vote counting so far show that Ghani is ahead, despite the fact that Abdullah received nearly 45 percent of votes in the election’s first round back in April.

The preliminary result of the election is due on July 2 and the final result, after adjudication of complaints, is scheduled for July 22. The winner will succeed outgoing President Hamid Karzai, who has been in power since the US-led invasion of the country in 2001.