Fake Afghan Poll Sites Favored Karzai, Officials Assert

New York Times ^ | September 6, 2009 | Carlotta Gall and Dexter Filkins

[Loyalist]

KABUL, Afghanistan — In the days before the disputed presidential election, Afghans loyal to President Hamid Karzai set up hundreds of fictitious polling sites, where no one voted but where hundreds of thousands of ballots were still recorded toward the president’s re-election, according to senior Western and Afghan officials here.

The fake sites, as many as 800, existed only on paper, said a senior Western diplomat in Afghanistan who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the political delicacy of the vote. Local workers reported that hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of votes for Mr. Karzai came from each of those places. That pattern was confirmed by another Western official based in Afghanistan.

“We think that about 15 percent of the polling sites never opened on Election Day,” the senior Western diplomat said. “But they still managed to report thousands of ballots for Karzai.”

[Loyalist]

The best we can say for Afghanistan's election process is that is only slightly less corrupt than Chicago's.

[Islaminaction]

No more nation building with Muslims please.

[happinesswithoutpeace]

Ugly.