Posted on 10/09/2004 5:30:40 AM PDT by crushelits
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s first direct presidential election was thrust into turmoil hours after it started Saturday when all 15 candidates challenging interim leader Hamid Karzai alleged fraud over the ink meant to ensure people voted only once and vowed to boycott the results.
But electoral officials rejected their demand that the vote be called off, saying an apparent mix-up with the ink was not severe enough to halt the historic vote. They said they would rule on the legitimacy of the vote later.
"The vote will continue because halting the vote at this stage is unjustified and would deny these people their right to vote," said Ray Kennedy, the vice-chairman of the joint U.N.-Afghan electoral body. "There have been some techical problems but overall it has been safe and orderly."
Election officials said workers at some voting stations mistakenly swapped the permanent ink meant to mark thumbs with normal ink meant for ballots, but insisted the problem was caught quickly.
The opposition candidates, meeting at the house of Uzbek candidate Abdul Satar Sirat, had signed a petition saying they would not recognize the results of the vote, saying the glitches opened the way for widespread fraud.
"Today's election is not a legitimate election. It should be stopped and we don't recognize the results," said Sirat, who is an ex-aide to Afghanistan's last king and a minor candidate who was given little chance of winning.
U.N. spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva had said earlier that the problems were not as pervasive as the opposition claimed.
"I don't think we can lose sight of the perspective. There are 23,000 polling stations in the country. We do not have indications it (the ink problem) was to a great extent," he said.
Regardless, the boycott cast a pall over what had been a joyous day in Afghanistan, where millions of Afghan voters braved threats of Taliban violence to cram polling stations throughout this ethnically diverse nation, in an election aimed at bringing peace and prosperity to a country nearly ruined by more than two decades of war.
The international community spent tens of millions of dollars staging the vote. At least 12 election workers, and dozens of Afghan security forces, died in the past few months as the nation geared up for the vote.
Sirat said every one of the 15 candidates still in the race against Karzai agreed to boycott the election, and many other candidates at the meeting confirmed they had joined. It was not immediately possible to reach all 15 camps.
"We are not taking part today," Sirat said. "This vote is a fraud."
The issue of the ink is crucial because officials had said before the vote that many people had received more than one registration card for the election by mistake. Vote organizers had argued that the indelible ink would prevent people from voting twice, even if they had more than one card.
About 10.5 million registration cards were handed out ahead of the election, a staggering number that U.N. and Afghan officials say was inflated by widespread double registration. Human rights groups say some people obtained four or five voter cards, thinking they would be able to use them to receive humanitarian aid.
Massooda Jalal, the only woman in the field and one of the candidates to sign the petition, said she had decided to protest after getting calls of complaint from her constituents. "The ink that is being used can be rubbed off in a minute. Voters can vote 10 times!" she said.
Another candidate, ethnic Tajik newspaper editor Hafiz Mansoor, also complained of fraud. "Very easily they can erase the ink," he said. "This is a trick that is designed to clear the way for cheating."
Karzai, accompanied by heavily armed bodyguards, voted in a room at what was once the prime minister's residence. He rubbed his thumb to show reporters the ink didn't rub off.
"It is not important who wins, but it is important that Afghanistan makes its own future," he told reporters before the call for the boycott surfaced. "This is a very great day. God is very kind to us."
Voters had queued for hours outside polling stations in bombed-out schools, blue-domed mosques and bullet-pocked hospitals to cast ballots, while more than 100,000 soldiers, police, U.S. troops and other security forces were deployed to thwart attacks.
All roads leading to Kabul and other major cities were heavily guarded and closed to most traffic. Heightened security measures appeared to work, despite plenty of signs Taliban rebels were trying to disrupt the polls.
On Friday, a bomb-sniffing dog discovered a fuel-truck rigged with anti-tank mines and laden with 10,000 gallons of gasoline that three Pakistanis planned to detonate in the southern city of Kandahar, said Col. Ishaq Paiman, the Defense Ministry deputy spokesman.
The blast would have killed hundreds and "derailed" balloting in the south, he said.
The election offered a stark contrast in a nation that has endured many forms of imposed rule in the past 30 years — among them monarchy, Soviet occupation, warlord fiefdoms and the repressive Taliban theocracy ousted by the U.S.-led invasion following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"I came here to vote so we can have democracy and stability and peace in Afghanistan," said Aziz Ullah, a 19-year-old Kabul shopkeeper. "There used to only be a transfer of power by force or killing."
Women voted at separate booths from the men, in keeping with this nation's conservative Islamic leaning.
The European Union (news - web sites) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation (news - web sites) in Europe sent observer missions, but neither said it planned to pass judgment on the fairness of the process, saying it would not be appropriate to try to hold Afghanistan to international standards. A small U.S. observer team also was monitoring the vote.
"..The opposition candidates, meeting at the house of Uzbek candidate Abdul Satar Sirat, had signed a petition saying they would not recognize the results of the vote, saying we need to cover up the fact we got our butts kicked in the election..."
The losers can't get big $$$ lobbyist gigs there, so they call the election a fraud and go back to warlording.
Good thing Jimuh C. isn't over there or he would declare the Taliban the winner.
Hey!! They got Democrats over there?
Why didn't they just use permanent ink for both marking hands and ballots, to avoid confusion?
I don't think this is a huge problem but what a stupid, avoidable screwup. Why give people an easy excuse to call the election "illegitimate"?
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