VZCZCXRO9173
PP RUEHDBU RUEHPW RUEHSL
DE RUEHBUL #2480/01 2351753
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 231753Z AUG 09
FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1032
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KABUL 002480 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL AF
SUBJECT: AFGHANISTAN'S ELECTORAL BODIES SPEAK OUT 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: Over the next several weeks the Afghan 
Independent Election Commission and Electoral Complaints 
Commission are the focus of public attention as they make 
almost daily announcements on election processes, results and 
complaints.  August 22 marked the first public statement of 
the IEC since the August 20 elections, and August 23 marked 
the first ECC public statement as well as additional details 
from the IEC on how and when it will begin announcing 
results.  Final certified results not coming out until the 
ECC has finished adjudicating relevant complaints.  End 
Summary. 
 
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The Independent Election Commission 
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¶2. (SBU) The Independent Election Commission (IEC), the 
Afghan organization directing elections, gave preliminary 
readouts about the day of voting at a press conference on 
August 22.  At that time, the IEC reported opening 6,199 
polling centers of their projected 6,519.  It is not yet 
clear to observers that these numbers are accurate.  The IEC 
also issued a statement on election-related violence with a 
simple press release on the killings of 11 of its staffers 
nationwide, as of August 22. 
 
¶3. (SBU) On August 23 the IEC had two more press conferences. 
 The first one was chaired by the Director of the Commission, 
Sidiquallah Tawhidi.  He presented a summary of the IEC's 
report regarding the 48 hour pre-election media silence 
period.  He stated that the period had been generally 
respected, and requested more patience in waiting for results 
on the part of the media.  Tawhidi stressed that no other 
group or individual's reports of results could be trusted or 
should be listened to.  The Director was emphatic that only 
the IEC can announce definitive results.  He requested that 
the media report only what they see and leave the 
prognostications of non-IEC groups out of reports. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Tawhidi also strongly condemned the arrests and 
harrassment of reporters, all Afghan local media except for 
one Japanese reporter, on the part of the GIRoA on election 
day and in the days preceding.  Tawhidi demanded that the MOI 
investigate and prosecute any police wrongdoing. 
 
¶5. (SBU) The second IEC press conference of the day was 
chaired by Dr. Daoud Ali Najafi, Chief Electoral Officer, in 
his trademark unflappable manner.  He concentrated on 
process, the area of his responsibility.  As of the press 
conference, provincial capitals had received 75 percent of 
all TEBs containing vote tallies from individual polling 
stations.  Some capitals had received 100 percent of their 
expected election materials.  However, at the very low end 
were Daikondi at 22 percent delivered, Ghazni at 28 percent 
delivered, Takhar at 24 percent delivered, and Nuristan at 38 
percent delivered.  Somewhat surprisingly, PRT Kandahar 
reports that Kandahar City has received all ballot boxes as 
of August 22.  If there is large-scale fraud in Kandahar, as 
has been alleged by some, this could simply be evidence of 
the eagerness of that operation to have its handiwork counted. 
 
¶6. (SBU) The IEC has 110 people working in shifts and expects 
to process 2,000 TEBs by August 25.  As of August 23, they 
had processed 750 of the 1000 TEBs that have arrived in 
Kabul.  There is some question about why more of the TEBs 
from Kabul Province itself have not arrived at the tally 
center for processing.  As of August 22 only 2 TEBs out of 
518 expected had arrived.  They may be spread throughout all 
the trucks waiting at the delivery area, where there is a 
bottleneck. 
 
¶7. (SBU) All ballot boxes and results forms should be in 
their final locations by August 25, when the first partial 
results will be announced.  From then on, as results are 
processed, there will be daily announcements by the IEC media 
center and on the website regarding new tallies.  (Comment: 
There is a risk that this piecemeal doling out of information 
may inflame the prognosticating going on on all sides, but it 
is done in the interest of transparency.  End Comment.) 
Between September 3 and 7, uncertified preliminary results 
will be broadcast by the IEC.  From September 17 to 21, the 
final certified results will be announced on the IEC website 
and in the media.  Previously the IEC had said they would 
announce final results by September 17 but they have added a 
window to give the Election Complaints Commission (ECC) 
flexibility in adjudicating all the relevant complaints. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Members of the Embassy elections team have been at 
the IEC and tally centers since August 20.  The IEC has 
formulated a policy that that they would refuse to count the 
ballots from any polling centers that had not had an official 
Afghan National Security Force presence.  The IEC plans to 
 
KABUL 00002480  002 OF 002 
 
 
verify the official polling center data for any questionable 
boxes with their provincial and district IEC officials. 
While there are allegations against IEC workers for bias and 
even intimidation of voters in favor of particular 
candidates, the organization seems to be struggling toward 
relative propriety under impressive technical leadership. 
 
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The Electoral Complaints Commission 
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¶9. (SBU) At its August 23 press conference, the Electoral 
Complaints Commission (ECC) was even more careful than the 
IEC to stress that September 17 is not a firm date for it to 
have adjudicated all the complaints it has received with 
bearing on the election.  Based on resource and time 
constraints, the ECC took the effective step of prioritizing 
the over 400 complaints it has thus far received regarding 
election day.  Those complaints that would have a bearing on 
the results have been marked "prioritized" and of those, 35 
have been designated "high priority."  To date, none of the 
complaints received by ECC were from an IEC polling station, 
where the ECC had placed complaint forms for people to fill 
out in the event of an irregularity.  These forms have not 
yet been received by the ECC. 
 
¶10. (SBU) In its press conference the ECC offered few 
substantive answers to questions about fraud incidents.  This 
posture is both appropriate and safe, especially since the 
ECC, after a very slow start, has just begun to come into its 
own and build its institutional capacity to investigate fraud 
allegations.  How much credibility the ECC is able to muster 
from now on will depend on how it handles the complaints 
about August 20 and also how it handles the firestorm that 
will come regardless of which side it favors in its 
adjudication. 
EIKENBERRY