ELECTION WATCHDOGS 5/30/17 11:29 AM Due to an urgent focus on operational issues and the transfer of ballots to Kabul (which were logistically significant), the IEC also did not issue at the outset detailed guidelines about the proper chain of custody of evidence and how to deal with fundamental fraud risks such as similarly marked ballots and similarly signed results sheets. Such clear and tangible directions would have helped to prepare auditors to perform fundamental aspects of their audit duties in a standardized manner, and reduce challenges for the IEC down the road. Beginning the audit process under political pressure (with notice of 24 hours according to the political agreement) left little time to develop such guidelines. A key challenge faced by the main actors in the Afghanistan election related to the transport of ballot boxes to the centralized audit location. The IEC, the International Security Assistance Force and the UN did a remarkable job of securing transportation of ballot boxes from the provincial warehouses scattered across Afghanistan to a centralized location. Procedures to ensure the presence of observers and party agents were quickly issued, facilitating sufficient transparency of this important component. For an audit process of this scale and level of controversy, the importance of transparency measures is hard to overstate. The presence of candidates and observers over many weeks was admirable. However, the complex operating environment, the pressure for rapid decisions, and the lack of pre-determined standards led to challenges in preserving the evidentiary chain of custody. In accordance with the international standard requiring the right of appeal, audit decisions by the IEC could be appealed to the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC). However, appeal procedures were not determined before the audit began, and challenges with the consistent application of IECC procedures meant there was also a loss of trust in this body by candidate agents and the public – despite the fact that cooperation between the IEC and IECC during the audit was generally good. As such, this appeal process faced challenges in ensuring the legitimacy of the process and the acceptance of results. As discussed earlier, inviting international observers to observe an electoral audit is a best practice in emerging democracies, and permitting international observers contributed significantly to the transparency of Afghanistan’s audit process. However, the IEC required that one international observer be present at each audit station before IEC officials could begin auditing ballot boxes, based on a political requirement from one candidate team as a precondition for participation in the audit. While the motivation to ensure transparency of the process was important, this requirement significantly influenced the structure of the international observation missions, albeit not their findings. Specifically, this requirement forced observer missions to deploy many more observers than was substantively necessary to observe such a process and increased the logistical and management burden considerably. 13