Afghanistan 2014: Top election official resigns over fraud claims

Senior Afghan election official Zia ul-Haq Amarkhail at the centre of fraud claims in the presidential run-off vote has resigned.

Zia ul-Haq Amarkhail said he was stepping down “for the sake of national unity”, denying allegations of ballot box-stuffing earlier this month.

His resignation comes after audio tapes were released allegedly revealing that Zia ul-Haq Amarkhail was trying to influence the outcome of the vote.

They were published by the camp of one of the candidates – Abdullah Abdullah.

However, Abdullah Abdullah’s rival Ashraf Ghani has also made allegations of fraud.

The official results of the June 14 run-off are yet to be published.

In a dramatic turn of events on Monday, Zia ul-Haq Amarkhail tendered his resignation on national television.

He vehemently denied any wrongdoing, saying he had been the victim of a plot.

Zia ul-Haq Amarkhail also described the tapes as “fake” and blamed the country’s security services for interfering in the election.

In an apparent reference to ballot box-stuffing, the tapes appear to show Zia ul-Haq Amarkhail urging a colleague to “bring the sheep stuffed and not empty”.

The reference to sheep and goats – ballot boxes and people or votes – is made several times during the recorded exchanges.

Reacting to the latest developments, Abdullah Abdullah said the resignation of Zia ul-Haq Amarkhail had opened the door for discussions with Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission.

Abdullah Abdullah also said his recent decision to stop co-operating with the election authorities had not been intended to disrupt the process, but to prevent a fraudulent election result and to protect people’s votes.