KABUL - With preliminary results of Afghan presidential elections due this weekend, high expectations are being placed on Afghanistan’s electoral bodies to ensure maximum transparency in the vote tallying exercise to retain public confidence in the process.

The leading candidates, through separate press encounters and public messages, have significantly emphasized the transparency in vote counting process and respecting the trust of the people of the country, who braved harsh weather and security threats to participate in the 5 April Presidential and Provincial Council elections.

Both the electoral bodies of the country, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC), have reiterated their pledges to protect the votes with utmost honesty.

The IEC on Tuesday said it is postponing until Saturday the announcement of the preliminary results, which was originally scheduled for Thursday. The electoral body said it needed more time to thoroughly assess the ballots to provide “an accurate and credible result” that would impact the final outcome.

“The announcement was delayed in order to properly address a series of irregularities in some places,” said the IEC Spokesperson, Noor Mohammad Noor, at a news conference today.

The IEC is also planning to announce the third batch of partial results of the Presidential election on Thursday, said Mr. Noor, adding that the electoral body has processed 98.25 per cent of the poll result sheets.

He also noted that media representatives and election observers have been present during almost all the activities of the IEC.

Also today, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has encouraged steps taken by Afghan electoral institutions to continuously increase transparency around the counting of votes from the country’s presidential elections.

“The Afghan electoral institutions should be commended for their efforts to make the electoral process more transparent than ever before and be encouraged to take further proactive steps in this direction," said the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of UNAMA, Ján Kubiš, while speaking after a meeting of the Chairs of the IEC and IECC with the diplomatic community in Kabul.

"Openness and a willingness to have observers, candidate agents and other parties scrutinize the process at every step is of critical importance. Constant communication with the candidates and the public is another essential requirement," said Mr. Kubiš.

The top UN envoy in the country also said that he was encouraged by the electoral institutions’ resolve to closely coordinate their work to ensure that all complaints are addressed and adjudicated according to Afghan laws. The vote must be duly audited and the integrity of the electoral process must be safeguarded, he stressed.

However, he called upon the electoral institutions to strive to respect electoral deadlines, while prioritizing their fundamental duty to ensure due process and the delivery of justice to the Afghan people with full impartiality, integrity and transparency.

In a separate development today, the IEC’s Electoral Media Commission imposed cash penalties against 14 media organizations for breaking the code of conduct in their coverage of the 5 April Presidential and Provincial Council elections. The cash penalties, against – 13 private television channels and one radio station – range from 5,000 Afs ($86) to 75,000 Afs ($1,300).

“There are some other media institutions, which have performed significantly and the Media Commission is considering awarding them,” said the head of the Commission, Farida Nekzad, at a news conference in the capital, Kabul.