Fraud may Reign in Afghan Vote
source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=amSfjiV1J9R8
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Afghan Presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah said fraud in the nation’s Aug. 20 election has been widespread enough to alter its outcome.
Local officials in southern provinces have been “stuffing ballot boxes” in favor of President Hamid Karzai, Abdullah, the chief challenger, said today at a Kabul press conference. While voting in the ethnic-Pashtun south was as little as 10 percent due to Taliban attacks, ballot boxes from many districts are arriving with votes for Karzai representing a 40 to 45 percent turnout, Abdullah said.
Election monitoring groups also have reported voting misconduct in favor of Karzai, although Abdullah’s fraud complaint was the broadest and most specific yet. It assured that the results to be announced beginning this week will be contested before the country’s Electoral Complaints Commission, a five-man panel headed by a Canadian elections specialist.
Local officials in southern provinces have been “stuffing ballot boxes” in favor of President Hamid Karzai, Abdullah, the chief challenger, said today at a Kabul press conference. While voting in the ethnic-Pashtun south was as little as 10 percent due to Taliban attacks, ballot boxes from many districts are arriving with votes for Karzai representing a 40 to 45 percent turnout, Abdullah said.
Election monitoring groups also have reported voting misconduct in favor of Karzai, although Abdullah’s fraud complaint was the broadest and most specific yet. It assured that the results to be announced beginning this week will be contested before the country’s Electoral Complaints Commission, a five-man panel headed by a Canadian elections specialist.
