Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah pulled his team out of the ongoing poll audit Wednesday, saying his “legal demands” had not been met, his spokesman said.
On Tuesday, Mr. Abdullah warned he would quit unless the election commission met several demands including that ballot boxes with 90 per cent votes for one candidate be invalidated.
“Unfortunately, they (election commission) did not care our concerns. So, our technical team has not attended the process,” said Ali Amiri, a spokesman for Mr. Abdullah’s camp.
The election commission says 8.1 million people voted in the June 14 runoff, but Mr. Abdullah rejects the figure, claiming the turnout was much lower, and boosted by ballot-stuffing for his rival.
The audit is being conducted by teams consisting of Mr. Abdullah’s representatives, others working for his rival Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, officials from the election commission, and the United Nations observers.
