ECC Delists Winning Candidate in Herat

Photo of Ghoryani from candidate's website

KABUL, Oct 24 -- The Electoral Complaints Commission has delisted the top winning candidate of Herat Province, Hajji Nisar Ahmad Faizi Ghoryani, for failing to resign from his government position. Ghoryani won 17,906 votes in the preliminary results for the 2010 Wolesi Jirga elections.

The ECC also announced at a press conference Sunday that the Independent Election Commission had reported to it a further 96 candidates accused of committing fraud during the 2010 Wolesi Jirga elections and the security services had reported 4 candidates, accused of using or attempting to use fake voting registration cards during election day. The ECC adjudicating these cases has already informed the candidates to vindicate themselves within 5 days at the ECC HQ in Kabul. After inspecting their response forms the ECC will announce its decision regarding the candidates.

Ghoryani, a former jihadi commander who fought against the Soviets in the 1980s, was quoted by Pajhwok on September 20 as saying that his observers had told him he'd won 42,000 votes. The ECC on October 13 said it had annulled all votes cast in the province of Herat for the brother of Herat’s mayor, Muhammad Salim Taraki, and filed a formal complaint against the mayor with the attorney general.

Here's a provincial breakdown of the candidates reported by the IEC and security services to the ECC:

Kabul (23 candidates), Balkh (1), Badakhshan (1), Jawzjan (1), Sar-i-Pul (3), Wardak (2), Paktika (11), Faryab (4), Herat (9), Kandahar (11), Nangrahar (4), Ghazni (10), Khost (1), Paktia (5), Baghlan (5), Ghor (1), Nooristan (1), Badghis (7), Logar (3), Kunduz (4), Kuchi (6), Helmand (3), Farah (1) and Kunar 4 candidates.

Before that the IEC and security institution reported 175 candidates who were accused for committing fraud to the ECC.