Allegations haunt Afghan vote

AFGHANISTAN: Millions of Afghans may have risked Taliban attacks to vote for a new Parliament, but the credibility of the entire process is on the line at a crucial time for the US-led war strategy.

Even before polls closed Saturday, the parliamentary vote appeared to be heading into a similar quagmire of claims and counter-claims of fraud, ballot-stuffing, vote-buying and fudged figures as the 2009 presidential poll.

More than 2,500 candidates stood for 249 seats in the lower house in Afghanistan’s fourth election and second parliamentary vote since the 2001 US-led invasion evicted the hardline Taliban regime.

It was the latest step in a US-led process to bring democracy to a country ravaged by 30 years of war, and a key plank of the strategy to try to end a brutal nine-year Taliban insurgency and strengthen Government. But after the 2009 election returned Hamid Karzai for a second term amid massive fraud, Western and Afghan officials made sure they kept expectations low, warning that Saturday’s poll would also be riddled with irregularities. Disputes are being handled by the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC), which expects to receive thousands of formal objections by the deadline of 4 pm (1130 GMT) Tuesday.

Afghanistan’s Free and Fair Election Foundation (FEFA) said there were cases of polling centres opening late, ineligible voters, misuse of registration cards, proxy voting, poor ink quality and shortages of ballot papers.

FEFA head Nader Nadery told Al Jazeera television that intimidation was a major issue that “did affect the decision of the voters in (some) areas and needs to be looked at very, very carefully”.

Kabul, AFP