Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Data Entry Still Slow: Election Observers

Data Entry Still Slow: Election Observers

KABUL - Election observers and members of election campaigns on Wednesday once again blasted the Independent Election Commission (IEC) over its failure to accelerate the process of transferring data from the biometric devices to the commission’s main server.
According to Election Commission officials, over the past 24 hours the data from only 24 biometric devices has been transferred to the commission’s main server.
The IEC used over 26,000 biometric devices in the September 28 presidential elections.
Over the past twelve days, the Election Commission has managed to transfer data from 22,445 biometric devices to the IEC’s main server.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Hanif Danishyar, a member of the Election Commission, told TOLOnews that if the data entry process moves forward at the current pace, the Election Commission will not be able to announce the preliminary results of the election on time.
He said that internet outage is one of the key factors hindering the data entry process.
But in Wednesday’s press conference, the IEC was optimistic:
“The problem won’t cause huge harm to the entire process,“ said Aurangzeb, a member of the Election Commission. He also said that two German technical experts from the biometric device company were coming to assist: “The reason we invited the engineers was to separate fake votes from valid ones.”
“The data entry process has moved slowly over the past one week. If the same process continues, of course this will prevent other programs from being implemented on time,” said Mohammad Younus Nawandesh, an election observer.
“If the problem is not resolved, the preliminary results should be announced based on the result sheets. The commission should offer justifiable reasons for the problems to the observers,” said Wase Rahmani, an election observer.
But the Election Commission on Wednesday once again stated that it will meet the October 19 deadline for determining the preliminary results.  (Tolo News)