BBC Online :
Afghanistan’s election commission has suspended an audit of votes from June’s hotly-disputed presidential run-off.
The Independent Election Commission (IEC) said this was due to a “misunderstanding”,without elaborating.
Both candidates Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah accuse each other of electoral fraud. The audit process of more than eight million votes – brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry – has been marred by walkouts by both sides.
Ghani won the 14 June run-off, according to preliminary results. Abdullah came top in the first round in April, but failed to secure 50% of the vote to avoid the run-off.
Analysts warn that any further delays could further destabilise the conflict-torn country.
The IEC announced its decision just four days after the process began. It did not provide further details.
However, the BBC has learnt that party agents from the Ghani camp staged a brief walkout on Saturday after a dispute over how the ballots were being scrutinised, the BBC’s Karen Allen in Kabul reports.
The two sides still appear at odds over the ground rules for the audit, and most of the 23,000 ballot boxes are still to be checked, our correspondent says.
