The Chairperson of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), Hawa Alam Nuristani, has said that the Election Commission apologizes to the Afghan people for the delay in announcement of the preliminary results of the presidential polling on time.

The preliminary results expected to be reported on October 19, but Nuristani noted that the delay would “further ensure the transparency of the [electoral] process” and “restore the people’s confidence in it.”
“Unfortunately, because of some technical issues and for transparency, we could not announce the results based on the election timetable,” she said.

The chief election commissioner promised to release preliminary results as soon as possible but did not say exactly when that would happen.
In the meantime, President’s spokesman, Sediq Sediqi has declared that the Afghan people yearn to hear about the results of the presidential elections.
“We respect the Independent Election Commission’s decision to postpone announcing the results to ensure fairness, transparency and accountability of the final vote”, he said.