Audit Of Afghan Presidential Ballots Gets Off To Slow Start

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WATCH: Officials in Kabul have begun auditing ballot boxes from the presidential election runoff. The two presidential candidates, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani, agreed the audit should be done by 100 teams, but just 60 audit teams were working at the start.

Afghan election officials say an audit of all 8 million ballots in the disputed Afghan presidential runoff election has gotten off to a slow start.

An official from Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission told RFE/RL that only 32 ballot boxes were audited in Kabul on July 17, the first day of the review.

Electoral officials said they need to audit 1,000 ballot boxes every day, using 100 teams of auditors, to complete the task in about four weeks.

Only 60 teams of auditors were at work on July 17.

The audit is supervised by international observers. It comes after candidates Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani both claimed victory in the June 14 vote.

Abdullah has alleged massive fraud, suggesting as many as 3 million ballots were not valid.

Both candidates have agreed that whoever wins the vote will form a government of "national unity" to prevent sectarian violence.