DLR'sCock
10-10-2004, 02:50 PM
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=5&u=/ap/20041010/ap_on_re_as/afghan_election
Panel to Probe Fraud Claims in Afghan Vote
By Daniel Cooney
The Associated Press
Sunday 10 October 2004
KABUL, Afghanistan - An independent commission will probe claims by all 15 challengers to interim leader Hamid Karzai that Afghanistan's first direct presidential election was marred by incompetence and fraud, a top official said Sunday.
The move to head off the attack on the vote's legitimacy came as workers began the long process of collecting ballots from Saturday's historic election, in which Karzai was a heavy favorite. Counting was to start Monday and was expected to take two to three weeks.
A day after the challengers announced they would boycott the election's outcome, two backed off, saying they wanted a commission to rule on whether the voting was fair and indicating they would accept its decision.
A few hours later, their demand appeared to have been met.
"There is going to be an independent commission made to investigate it," said electoral director Farooq Wardak. "There could be mistakes; we are just human beings. My colleagues might have made a mistake."
There was no immediate reaction from the challengers, but U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and other officials were reportedly meeting behind closed doors with many of the candidates.
What was supposed to be a historic day in this war-ravaged nation turned sour hours after voting started when the 15 accused the government and the United Nations of fraud and incompetence over faulty ink used to mark people's thumbs to prevent multiple voting.
The complaint by the 15 drew criticism from international electoral observers.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said Sunday the demand to nullify the poll was unjustified. The U.S. International Republican Institute called the ballot "a triumph" and accused the challengers of trying to make up excuses for why they were likely to lose.
Electoral officials said turnout looked extremely high — a victory in itself in a nation with no experience at direct elections.
On Sunday, ballots were being carried to eight centers around the country, where they were being readied for counting. Tabulation was not expected to start until Monday.
Very early results could emerge a day or so later. But electoral spokesman Aykut Tavsel added, "I don't think we will see a trend as to who is leading for about a week." He said final results could take until Oct. 30.
At a counting center on Kabul's outskirts, sealed bags of votes were brought in from surrounding areas and were being sorted by dozens of workers.
In Mazar-e-Sharif, election officials said they had not received ballots that were supposed to be flowing in from five northern provinces. They said it could take until Tuesday or Wednesday for ballots to arrive from remote villages.
Widespread attacks threatened by the Taliban to disrupt the vote never materialized. The rebels managed a smattering of deadly assaults around the country, but they themselves took the biggest hit, losing 25 men in a clash with U.S. and Afghan forces in the south.
Lt. Gen. David Barno, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that the election could sound the rebels' death knell.
"The Taliban basically didn't show. They had very limited attacks," he said. "Yesterday was a huge defeat for the Taliban."
He predicted Taliban leaders would "eventually look for ways to reconcile with the government that comes in."
In the end, faulty ink — not bombs and bullets — threatened three years of painstaking progress toward democracy. The 15 presidential candidates claimed the ink used to mark voters' thumbs rubbed off too easily, raising the possibility that people could vote more than once.
U.N. and Afghan electoral officials said the problem had been corrected and rejected demands that voting be stopped at midday Saturday, saying it would rob millions of people of their first chance to directly decide their leader.
Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador, also backed the vote. "The Afghan nation has spoken — it has voted for democracy and freedom," he said.
Still, a successful democracy needs an opposition that accepts election results. Even if the vote is validated, Karzai's ability to unite the nation, fight warlords and crush the Taliban insurgency might be undermined if his opponents refused to recognize the vote's legitimacy.
Karzai called "the election was free and fair."
On Sunday, ethnic Hazara candidate Mohammed Mohaqeq said an electoral commission should be formed to examine the vote and later distanced himself from the challengers' threat to boycott the results.
"To boycott and to criticize are two different things. Their position is to boycott. My position is to criticize," he told reporters outside a mosque where he had come to pray.
The only woman in the election, Massooda Jalal, also indicated she might accept a commission's finding.
The opposition protest was an embarassment to the international community, which spent $200 million putting on the election.
But the boycott was largely ignored by officials in Washington, which financed much of the election and led the military campaign that ousted the Taliban nearly three years ago. President Bush called the vote a "marvelous thing."
About 10.5 million registration cards were handed out for the election, a number that U.N. and Afghan officials say was inflated by widespread double registration. Organizers had argued that indelible ink marking voters' thumbs would prevent people from voting twice.
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Associated Press reporters Stephen Graham in Kandahar, Burt Herman in Mazar-e-Sharif and Amir Shah and Paul Haven in Kabul contributed to this report.
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Jump to TO Features for Monday October 11, 2004
Panel to Probe Fraud Claims in Afghan Vote
By Daniel Cooney
The Associated Press
Sunday 10 October 2004
KABUL, Afghanistan - An independent commission will probe claims by all 15 challengers to interim leader Hamid Karzai that Afghanistan's first direct presidential election was marred by incompetence and fraud, a top official said Sunday.
The move to head off the attack on the vote's legitimacy came as workers began the long process of collecting ballots from Saturday's historic election, in which Karzai was a heavy favorite. Counting was to start Monday and was expected to take two to three weeks.
A day after the challengers announced they would boycott the election's outcome, two backed off, saying they wanted a commission to rule on whether the voting was fair and indicating they would accept its decision.
A few hours later, their demand appeared to have been met.
"There is going to be an independent commission made to investigate it," said electoral director Farooq Wardak. "There could be mistakes; we are just human beings. My colleagues might have made a mistake."
There was no immediate reaction from the challengers, but U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and other officials were reportedly meeting behind closed doors with many of the candidates.
What was supposed to be a historic day in this war-ravaged nation turned sour hours after voting started when the 15 accused the government and the United Nations of fraud and incompetence over faulty ink used to mark people's thumbs to prevent multiple voting.
The complaint by the 15 drew criticism from international electoral observers.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said Sunday the demand to nullify the poll was unjustified. The U.S. International Republican Institute called the ballot "a triumph" and accused the challengers of trying to make up excuses for why they were likely to lose.
Electoral officials said turnout looked extremely high — a victory in itself in a nation with no experience at direct elections.
On Sunday, ballots were being carried to eight centers around the country, where they were being readied for counting. Tabulation was not expected to start until Monday.
Very early results could emerge a day or so later. But electoral spokesman Aykut Tavsel added, "I don't think we will see a trend as to who is leading for about a week." He said final results could take until Oct. 30.
At a counting center on Kabul's outskirts, sealed bags of votes were brought in from surrounding areas and were being sorted by dozens of workers.
In Mazar-e-Sharif, election officials said they had not received ballots that were supposed to be flowing in from five northern provinces. They said it could take until Tuesday or Wednesday for ballots to arrive from remote villages.
Widespread attacks threatened by the Taliban to disrupt the vote never materialized. The rebels managed a smattering of deadly assaults around the country, but they themselves took the biggest hit, losing 25 men in a clash with U.S. and Afghan forces in the south.
Lt. Gen. David Barno, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that the election could sound the rebels' death knell.
"The Taliban basically didn't show. They had very limited attacks," he said. "Yesterday was a huge defeat for the Taliban."
He predicted Taliban leaders would "eventually look for ways to reconcile with the government that comes in."
In the end, faulty ink — not bombs and bullets — threatened three years of painstaking progress toward democracy. The 15 presidential candidates claimed the ink used to mark voters' thumbs rubbed off too easily, raising the possibility that people could vote more than once.
U.N. and Afghan electoral officials said the problem had been corrected and rejected demands that voting be stopped at midday Saturday, saying it would rob millions of people of their first chance to directly decide their leader.
Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador, also backed the vote. "The Afghan nation has spoken — it has voted for democracy and freedom," he said.
Still, a successful democracy needs an opposition that accepts election results. Even if the vote is validated, Karzai's ability to unite the nation, fight warlords and crush the Taliban insurgency might be undermined if his opponents refused to recognize the vote's legitimacy.
Karzai called "the election was free and fair."
On Sunday, ethnic Hazara candidate Mohammed Mohaqeq said an electoral commission should be formed to examine the vote and later distanced himself from the challengers' threat to boycott the results.
"To boycott and to criticize are two different things. Their position is to boycott. My position is to criticize," he told reporters outside a mosque where he had come to pray.
The only woman in the election, Massooda Jalal, also indicated she might accept a commission's finding.
The opposition protest was an embarassment to the international community, which spent $200 million putting on the election.
But the boycott was largely ignored by officials in Washington, which financed much of the election and led the military campaign that ousted the Taliban nearly three years ago. President Bush called the vote a "marvelous thing."
About 10.5 million registration cards were handed out for the election, a number that U.N. and Afghan officials say was inflated by widespread double registration. Organizers had argued that indelible ink marking voters' thumbs would prevent people from voting twice.
-------
Associated Press reporters Stephen Graham in Kandahar, Burt Herman in Mazar-e-Sharif and Amir Shah and Paul Haven in Kabul contributed to this report.
-------
Jump to TO Features for Monday October 11, 2004