TALKING POINTS

Briefing by Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Spokesman for the Special Representative of the Secretary-General

Good afternoon, after we take your questions and answers we will have an expert briefing by Reg Austin who is the Senior Technical Advisor. He will be here to talk to you about counting, mixing and sorting.

JEMB accepts panel’s recommendations on quarantined ballot boxes
Mixing of the ballots began today, following the receipt by the Joint Electoral Management Body of the first report and recommendations from the Impartial Panel of International Experts established to investigate the complaints lodged by candidates regarding election day irregularities.

In a press statement issued today, the JEMB said it had reviewed, discussed, and accepted the panel’s recommendations to quarantine ballot boxes from 10 polling centres and 11 polling stations. Following these recommendations, the JEMB issued instructions to the secretariat to isolate those boxes for further investigation and to allow ballot boxes that are not being held in quarantine for further investigation to return to the normal flow of the counting process.

I will now give you an update as of three o’clock of the status of the continuation of the counting process. The first counting centre to begin mixing of ballots was Kunduz, it began at 11:30 this morning. Kabul began at 2:30 and at 2:45 mixing began in Kandahar. Just now at three o’clock, we just received confirmation that mixing began in Mazar and Gardez. Mixing of ballots are expected to begin in Bamyan, Herat and Jalalabad either tomorrow or Saturday, it depends on the beginning of Ramadan.

As we explained before, the counting process includes five steps; check-in of ballot boxes, reconciliation, mixing, sorting and counting of ballots.

Third member of Impartial Panel of International Experts arrives in Kabul
Following the recommendation of the European Union, the nomination by the United Nations and the appointment by the JEMB, the third member of the Impartial Panel of International Experts arrived at around noon today in Kabul. His name is David Mathieson and he is a British national.

Mr. Mathieson is an expert in electoral administration. He is the director of Electoral Reform International Services, a branch of the Electoral Reform Society of Great Britain, an independent organization that campaigns for fair elections. In the recent past, Mr. Mathieson has been involved with support of electoral processes in Gambia, Lesotho, and Zanzibar.

Observer organizations release statement on election
I would like to bring to your attention, that today two observer organizations released statements available at the entrance of this room and these are – ANFREL Asia Network for Free Elections and the Organization of Islamic Conference, both of them issued statements on voting day, 9th of October.

95% of ballot boxes have reached counting centres
I should also add as of today, it is estimated that 95% of all ballot boxes have reached one of the eight counting centres. As of this morning, 9,390 boxes had gone through the first stage of counting process which is checking. Another 4,093 boxes had gone through step number two which is reconciliation.

Finally to inform you, if tomorrow is indeed the beginning of Ramadan, there will not be operations in the counting centres and therefore no briefing here. However the media results centre will be open for those of you who wish to make use of the facilities. The next briefing will be on Saturday at 3 pm.

Questions & Answers

Question: I understand that the three members of the panel, the investigation panel are currently meeting some of the candidates, what is the purpose of the meeting?

Spokesman: The panel, I think they mentioned to you yesterday in the briefing, that they had sent a letter to the candidates; in that letter they had indicated among other things, that they would like to be available to meet with them. The candidates also invited them [investigation panel] for a meeting. I do not know how many candidates there are or who they are, because the meeting I believe is happening now, however earlier today they met with Mr. Sirat at his request.

Question: We hear the number of ballot boxes that have come in is not fixed to the number of ballot boxes that there are suppose to be?

Spokesman: If there is any complaint we have a mechanism in the Secretariat and they would process all the complaints.

Question: Just a technical question, if tomorrow is the first day of Ramadan, do you think the counting process will continue?

Spokesman: If tomorrow is the first day of Ramadan, the people will be given the day to rest, therefore, there will not be counting. There will be no briefing either, although the media centre will be open for those who need them. The next briefing is on Saturday at 3 o’clock.

Question: How often do you intend to release partial results, every few days every week, do you have a timeframe on that?

Spokesman: I think you will have them more than once a day, but I will leave that for Professor Austin to cover.

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