Afghan Candidates Challenge Election Legitimacy

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » 2004-10-09 07:57pm

CBC wrote:KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - Afghanistan's first direct presidential election ended Saturday without widespread violence, but most candidates immediately challenged its legitimacy.

Taliban militants had threatened to derail the vote with massive attacks, but seemed to have been warded off by 100,000 Afghan and foreign troops who provided security.

Instead, the millions of Afghans who crowded into polling stations saw their day soured by political intrigue.

Fifteen of 18 presidential candidates demanded at midday that the election be called off, alleging widespread fraud.

They complained that many people voted more than once after their thumbs were marked with ink that could be easily removed instead of an indelible type meant to limit them to one ballot.

The joint United Nations-Afghan committee running the election promised to investigate but refused to stop the voting.

Ray Kennedy, a committee chairman, acknowledged that mistakes were made but said they weren't severe enough to deny Afghans their first chance to elect a president.

"There have been some technical problems but overall it has been safe and orderly."

Interim leader Hamid Karzai, widely favoured to win, defended the election as "free and fair."

U.S. President George Bush hailed the election as a "marvelous thing," holding the country up as an example of a flourishing democracy.

The widespread violence that had been feared on Election Day never materialized, although a few dozen people were reported dead, including at least 25 Taliban rebels and three Afghan policemen who were transporting ballots.

Voter turnout appeared to be high, but officials predicted that the country's rugged geography would delay a final tally for a few weeks. They may have preliminary results Sunday.

In a country where only 30% of the populace can even read or write how can they have a legitimate election? I understand that voters where to be marked with indellible ink after voting but it turns out that most polling stations didn't have it. And there are alligations of people voting more than once. Not too mention: how many people were forced to vote a certain way?

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » 2004-10-09 07:58pm

Damn! Can a mod fix my tags? Hit submit instead of preview.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » 2004-10-09 07:59pm

Here is the likn to the story:

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/ ... 41010.html

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-10-09 08:08pm

Cpl Kendall wrote:Damn! Can a mod fix my tags? Hit submit instead of preview.

All too easy.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-10-09 08:14pm

They used the wrong ink. Seriously, the reason there's a ruckus at all is because the ink used to mark fingers of those that have voted was all too easy to rub off so someone could vote more than once and this, they reckon, could have messed the votes up.

Wicked Pilot · Post by **Wicked Pilot** » 2004-10-09 10:07pm

It's their first election ever and you people are bitching about these minor mistakes? Jesus, you crawl before you walk, and walk before you run.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-10-09 10:10pm

It sounds like it was run at least as well as a Florida election.

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2004-10-09 10:53pm

Darth Wong wrote:It sounds like it was run at least as well as a Florida election.

Better actually; 30% of their popluation voted and it was all counted, only about 30% of our population votes and in Flordia they didn't count a bunch of them.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2004-10-10 04:16am

Darth Wong wrote:It sounds like it was run at least as well as a Florida election.

Yeah, and get ready for another one. Our elections commission is already in spin-doctor mode, and the election hasn't even begun yet. If only Glenda the Hood had done work at her job instead of being a lazy bitch and drawing her paycheck for nothing.