Afghan Election Fiasco
Afghan election fiasco as Karzai rivals pull out over fraud claims
Afghanistan's first democratic presidential election was plunged into chaos yesterday after all 15 remaining candidates challenging President Hamid Karzai pulled out, claiming that measures to prevent fraud had failed. Two other candidates had dropped out earlier in the week.
Opposition politicians said that the election - which cost more than £100 million to stage - was "not legitimate". They boycotted it and said they would not accept the results, threatening political turmoil. The row followed farcical scenes at polling stations where it emerged that the indelible ink used to mark voters' thumbs could be rubbed off.
Electoral officials said that the problem had affected only a minority of voters. Given the declaration of no confidence from Mr Karzai's rivals, however, the poll's credibility seemed doomed.
"Today's election is not a legitimate election. It should be stopped and we don't recognise the results," said Abdul Satar Sirat, one of the candidates and a former aide to Afghanistan's last king.
The United Nations-Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB), which has overseen the elections, however said in a statement that the procedure was still valid and voting at the 25,000 polling stations should continue.
"Halting the voting at this point is unjustified and would deny individuals their fundamental right to vote," a spokesman said. Officials acknowledged, however, "some technical problems" and said candidates' complaints would be investigated.
The row ruined what should have been a momentous day in Afghanistan as the country's long-suffering population attempted to move on from decades of brutal warlordism, communism and religious extremism.
As thousands of voters queued outside polling stations set up in mosques, hospitals and schools, the much-feared attacks by Taliban and al-Qaeda militants largely failed to materialise.
Instead, the election was derailed by what initially seemed to be a trivial glitch over simple anti-fraud measures.
Electoral officials had hoped that the system of marking voters' fingers would solve the problem - previously acknowledged - that people had registered several times for polling cards.
During the day the estimated 10 million Afghans who had registered to vote had shown genuine excitement as they queued up to present their polling cards.
At a polling station set up in the bullet-scarred shell of the Setara schoolhouse in Kabul, Sayeed Zabihulla Sadat was waiting at 7am. "I got here early because I wanted to be the first in the queue to vote," the 33-year-old architect said. "This is a very exciting day when we get to choose our first government after 23 years of war."
On a monitoring visit at one polling station, Rosalind Marsden, the British Ambassador to Kabul, was almost swept away by an eager crowd. "Holding this election represents a major step towards long-term stability and democracy," she said, before the row over the ink broke out.
Within minutes of the polls opening, however, voters were beginning to remark on how easily the dark-blue ink could be removed. By mid-morning Mr Karzai's closest rival, the former education minister, Yunus Qanuni, said he would not cast his vote until the matter had been resolved.
Initially election officials ignored his comments, saying that the problems stemmed from a few staff in polling stations accidentally swapping indelible pens for those with washable ink supposed to be used to mark ballot papers.
The opposition candidates were unconvinced. At a lunchtime meeting held at Mr Sirat's house in Kabul, an apparently unanimous statement was issued calling for the vote to be halted. Massooda Jalal, the only female candidate, said she had been deluged with complaints from her constituents. "The ink that is being used can be rubbed off in a minute. Voters can vote 10 times," she said.
A fellow candidate, the ethnic Tajik newspaper editor Hafiz Mansoor, said: "This is a trick that is designed to clear the way for cheating."
The boycott is likely to infuriate American and British officials, who had placed considerable hopes in the election giving the country's fledgling post-Taliban government some legitimacy.
The vote has been one of the toughest to organise because of Afghanistan's mountainous terrain, illiterate population and continuing instability.
The security operation alone has involved 25,000 Nato and United States troops, supported by 75,000 Afghan police and soldiers who were trained for the task.
Given that none of the rival candidates stood a realistic chance of winning against Mr Karzai, the clear favourite, they are likely to face accusations that they pulled out simply to discredit him rather than over real concerns about the election's validity.
Election officials pointed out that in addition to indelible ink each voter had a photo polling card punched with a hole, limiting the opportunities for fraud.
Grant Kippen, of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, a Washington-based think tank that has been helping to train election officials, said the dispute was "extremely unfortunate".
He said: "Security-wise, the whole thing was coming off beautifully and it is unfortunate that it has been distilled down to a discussion over indelible ink." He added that election officials had spoken to some of the 50,000 party agents but none had reported problems.
He called on the rival candidates to provide hard evidence to back up their complaints. "We obviously need to investigate to see just how widespread any problems were, but I think it is incumbent on them to point out places where it has gone wrong," Mr Kippen said.
A Foreign Office spokesman in Kabul said that under electoral law, the candidates were not allowed to pull out once polling was under way. "If people want to boycott the election they have to drop out beforehand, but they are now trying to question the validity of the process," he said.
Mr Karzai, who when he voted rubbed his thumb in front of reporters to show that the ink could not be removed, said he would abide by the decision of election officials.
The officials conceded that pens could have been swapped deliberately to sabotage the voting process. "At one polling station I found that indelible markers did not exist," said Ghulam Farooq Wardak, of the JEMB. "This could be an attempt at sabotage. Some people might have issued their agents the wrong type of markers to defame the process."
Colin Freeman in Kabul
(Filed: 10/10/2004)
Afghanistan's first democratic presidential election was plunged into chaos yesterday after all 15 remaining candidates challenging President Hamid Karzai pulled out, claiming that measures to prevent fraud had failed. Two other candidates had dropped out earlier in the week.
Opposition politicians said that the election - which cost more than £100 million to stage - was "not legitimate". They boycotted it and said they would not accept the results, threatening political turmoil. The row followed farcical scenes at polling stations where it emerged that the indelible ink used to mark voters' thumbs could be rubbed off.
Electoral officials said that the problem had affected only a minority of voters. Given the declaration of no confidence from Mr Karzai's rivals, however, the poll's credibility seemed doomed.
"Today's election is not a legitimate election. It should be stopped and we don't recognise the results," said Abdul Satar Sirat, one of the candidates and a former aide to Afghanistan's last king.
The United Nations-Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB), which has overseen the elections, however said in a statement that the procedure was still valid and voting at the 25,000 polling stations should continue.
"Halting the voting at this point is unjustified and would deny individuals their fundamental right to vote," a spokesman said. Officials acknowledged, however, "some technical problems" and said candidates' complaints would be investigated.
The row ruined what should have been a momentous day in Afghanistan as the country's long-suffering population attempted to move on from decades of brutal warlordism, communism and religious extremism.
As thousands of voters queued outside polling stations set up in mosques, hospitals and schools, the much-feared attacks by Taliban and al-Qaeda militants largely failed to materialise.
Instead, the election was derailed by what initially seemed to be a trivial glitch over simple anti-fraud measures.
Electoral officials had hoped that the system of marking voters' fingers would solve the problem - previously acknowledged - that people had registered several times for polling cards.
During the day the estimated 10 million Afghans who had registered to vote had shown genuine excitement as they queued up to present their polling cards.
At a polling station set up in the bullet-scarred shell of the Setara schoolhouse in Kabul, Sayeed Zabihulla Sadat was waiting at 7am. "I got here early because I wanted to be the first in the queue to vote," the 33-year-old architect said. "This is a very exciting day when we get to choose our first government after 23 years of war."
On a monitoring visit at one polling station, Rosalind Marsden, the British Ambassador to Kabul, was almost swept away by an eager crowd. "Holding this election represents a major step towards long-term stability and democracy," she said, before the row over the ink broke out.
Within minutes of the polls opening, however, voters were beginning to remark on how easily the dark-blue ink could be removed. By mid-morning Mr Karzai's closest rival, the former education minister, Yunus Qanuni, said he would not cast his vote until the matter had been resolved.
Initially election officials ignored his comments, saying that the problems stemmed from a few staff in polling stations accidentally swapping indelible pens for those with washable ink supposed to be used to mark ballot papers.
The opposition candidates were unconvinced. At a lunchtime meeting held at Mr Sirat's house in Kabul, an apparently unanimous statement was issued calling for the vote to be halted. Massooda Jalal, the only female candidate, said she had been deluged with complaints from her constituents. "The ink that is being used can be rubbed off in a minute. Voters can vote 10 times," she said.
A fellow candidate, the ethnic Tajik newspaper editor Hafiz Mansoor, said: "This is a trick that is designed to clear the way for cheating."
The boycott is likely to infuriate American and British officials, who had placed considerable hopes in the election giving the country's fledgling post-Taliban government some legitimacy.
The vote has been one of the toughest to organise because of Afghanistan's mountainous terrain, illiterate population and continuing instability.
The security operation alone has involved 25,000 Nato and United States troops, supported by 75,000 Afghan police and soldiers who were trained for the task.
Given that none of the rival candidates stood a realistic chance of winning against Mr Karzai, the clear favourite, they are likely to face accusations that they pulled out simply to discredit him rather than over real concerns about the election's validity.
Election officials pointed out that in addition to indelible ink each voter had a photo polling card punched with a hole, limiting the opportunities for fraud.
Grant Kippen, of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, a Washington-based think tank that has been helping to train election officials, said the dispute was "extremely unfortunate".
He said: "Security-wise, the whole thing was coming off beautifully and it is unfortunate that it has been distilled down to a discussion over indelible ink." He added that election officials had spoken to some of the 50,000 party agents but none had reported problems.
He called on the rival candidates to provide hard evidence to back up their complaints. "We obviously need to investigate to see just how widespread any problems were, but I think it is incumbent on them to point out places where it has gone wrong," Mr Kippen said.
A Foreign Office spokesman in Kabul said that under electoral law, the candidates were not allowed to pull out once polling was under way. "If people want to boycott the election they have to drop out beforehand, but they are now trying to question the validity of the process," he said.
Mr Karzai, who when he voted rubbed his thumb in front of reporters to show that the ink could not be removed, said he would abide by the decision of election officials.
The officials conceded that pens could have been swapped deliberately to sabotage the voting process. "At one polling station I found that indelible markers did not exist," said Ghulam Farooq Wardak, of the JEMB. "This could be an attempt at sabotage. Some people might have issued their agents the wrong type of markers to defame the process."
Colin Freeman in Kabul
(Filed: 10/10/2004)
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