Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, presidential election candidate and head of Hizb-e-Islami, at a press conference on Monday called the preliminary election results "false."

"We did not expect that the Independent Election Commission would announce such a false result," said Hekmatyar, adding: "We have asked the independent Election Commission (IEC) to re-hold the election in those areas where the biometric devices were stolen, and we ask that the people responsible be punished."

Hekmatyar accused the IEC of "stealing" his votes and claimed that "the devices of 2,400 polling centers were stolen and they sent the ballot boxes back empty."

He also said: "We have asked the IEC to recount all the ballot boxes and we asked them why they are only counting 8,000 boxes."

"If the IEC had met our demands before, now we would have accepted the election results," he said.

"Hizb-e-Islami has the power to defend its rights," he stated.

The Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) started to register complaints on Monday for the next three days and then will address those complaints in "37 to 39 days," according to commission officials.

Din Mohammad Azimi, an official at the IECC, on Monday said: "We know that there will be more complaints over the election process, and we have enough people to address the complaints on time."

"We will do our work according to the law and will check that the votes have biometric data. If there any problems we will check with the IEC," he said.

On Sunday, the IEC announced the preliminary results and President Ashraf Ghani earned 923,868 votes and 50.64%.

Abdullah Abdullah followed with 720,990 votes and 39.52. Hekmatyar came in third place with 70,247 and 3.85%.

The presidential election was held on September 28.

LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/12238

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