Afghanistan’s notoriously troubled elections have also had some notoriously troubled recounts. That’s particularly true this year, as on Thursday the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) announced their intention to invalidate every single vote in Kabul.
That’s a pretty rash decision, and one that the ECC presumably isn’t taking lightly. It’s one the Independent Election Commission (IEC) says they shouldn’t be taking at all, as they insist that it is “unrealistic.”
This is a huge deal. Kabul had more than a million recorded votes, which is about a quarter of all the votes cast in the country. Just wiping out all these votes would basically ruin an election that was already disastrous, given how many polling places never opened.
This is not only another terrible blow to a bad parliamentary vote, but further harms the credibility of the upcoming presidential vote, in April. The US has been agitating for Afghanistan to cancel that vote, and this might add to the argument to do so.