Ex-Afghan election officials jailed on fraud charges

KABUL, Afghanistan

An appellate court in Afghanistan has sentenced 10 former election officials, including the chief election commissioner, to two-and-half years in prison on charges of vote fraud and abuse of power in the troubled parliamentary polls held in 2018.

The court concluded its judgement on Wednesday, a year after the initial ruling.

Last year, the initial verdict of a five-year jail term was announced for the accused, following rather unprecedented open trial at the Anti-Corruption Criminal Justice Center in the capital Kabul.

Among the convicted include Abdul Badi Sayyad, former head of the Independent Election Commission, and Abdul Aziz Aryaee, former head of the Electoral Complaints Commission.

It took the country’s electoral commission at least six months to compile the final results for the October 2018 parliamentary polls marred by irregularities and technical glitches.