KABUL - The following are excerpted remarks from the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Ján Kubiš, during a media encounter with the Chairman of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani, at IEC Headquarters, on the restart of the audit process.

Ján Kubiš: First of all, thank you very much for being here with us. I would like to make one announcement. As you know the IEC [Independent Election Commission] took a decision to restart after the Eid holidays the audit process.

Now that the regulatory framework is in place, that the international observers are in place, that the people are trained, and that also the UNDP [UN Development Programme] supervisors are in place; and that was something that we were looking forward to, indeed, to start, to restart the audit process this morning.

At the same time, yesterday evening, we, the United Nations and our election experts, received a request from his excellency Dr. Abdullah Abdullah for consultations as regards the UN proposal for clarifications before the restart of the audit.

And although the United Nations experts spent weeks talking to the election experts and leadership of both sides on the proposal that complemented them, the previous decisions of the IEC, and became a part of the most recent decision on invalidation and recount criteria, we decided to honour this request of Dr. Abdullah to have these consultations in the course of today.

That’s why this morning I approached Mr. Chairman [of the IEC] and I asked, through Mr. Chairman, the Commission to accept this 24 hour postponement of the restart of the audit to give today a chance for these consultations at the request of Dr. Abdullah.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Question: This will be the last delay of the audit or not? [inaudible] When [will] the whole agreement [be finalized] that both candidates will agree on [inaudible]?

Ján Kubiš: Both candidates agreed, in the presence of [US] Secretary [of State John] Kerry, on both the audit and the way how the audit will proceed, and on some political agreements. It took some time, and it was necessary time, to prepare proposals of the United Nations to complement and add [it] to the decisions of the Commission and, as you know, three days ago the Commission adopted the last piece of the regulatory framework, thus completing the regulatory framework needed for the audit. Dr. Abdullah, as he was not present here during the Eid holidays, upon his return requested consultations for certain clarification on what is in the proposal in the UN and [in] the decision of the IEC. That’s why we asked the Commission to kindly agree to the 24-hour postponement of the restart of the audit and the Commission was kind to grant this postponement for 24 hours.

After today’s consultations, we expect that the process of the audit will continue smoothly and without any interruptions.

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