Afghan poll watchdog invalidates votes cast in Kabul constituency

Kabul : Afghanistan's Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) has invalidated all votes cast during the October 20 parliamentary elections in Kabul constituency, officials said on Thursday.

Alireza Rohani, spokesman and secretary of ECC, told reporters here that widespread fraud and vote rigging damaged the transparency and credibility of polls in Kabul and led to the invalidation of all votes cast in the constituency.

About 2,767 complaints were registered in Kabul after the polls, Rohani was cited as saying by Xinhua news agency.

The long-delayed elections for Wolesi Jirga or lower house of the Afghan Parliament were held in October, with more than 2,500 candidates vying for the chamber's 249 seats.

The Election Commission of the country has announced the preliminary results of many of the 33 constituencies so far.