UN-led Audit in Afghanistan Resumes After Both Candidates Pull Out Their Observers

Afghanistan's disputed presidential election process took another turn Wednesday leading to further confusion as both the candidates withdrew their observers from a U.N.-supervised audit of the  ballots aimed at resolving the existing political crisis.

However, the audit resumed after a brief pause post the withdrawal of the contenders' observers.

The United Nations-led anti-fraud audit was to focus on all 8.1 million ballots from the June 14 presidential runoff of Afghanistan, Voice of America reports.

The Associated Press states that Abdullah Abdullah, a former Foreign Minister, was the first to withdraw his observer in protest against the process - which his team said - was full of fraud, the Times of India reports.

"We boycotted the audit process today because it is worthless for us. Let them carry on," said Fazel Ahmad Manawi, Abdullah's chief auditor, to Reuters.

Then, the United Nations instructed the other candidate, former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, to pull out his monitors as well so as to maintain fairness in the process.

"Today we requested the team of Dr. Ghani to review whether they should participate actively in the process. Underlying this request was a realization that the audit must not only have integrity, it must be seen to be even-handed by all Afghans," said U.N. deputy chief Nicholas Haysom.

This audit is part of a deal brokered by the United States to resolve the escalating tension between the rival groups - of Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani.  Both the candidates had claimed victory in the election, the first democratic transfer of power, held mid-June.

Post the declaration of victory by both the contenders, the crisis in the region due to political instability seemed to grow; if not resolved, it might lead to another round of fighting in a region which has been trying to get rid of Taliban insurgency for a while now.