Posted on 10/06/2004 10:05:22 AM PDT by TexKat
Afghan president Hamid Karzai gestures as he answers the journalists during the press conference in Kabul on Saturday, Oct.9, 2004. Afghanistan'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. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
An Afghan polling official smiles as he sits next to full ballot box after the closing down of the polls concluding the first presidential elections in the country in the southern Afghani city of Kandahar Saturday Oct. 9, 2004. As people lined up to vote across this long-suffering country, where 100,000 security forces including U.S. troops were deployed to thwart attacks from Taliban insurgents, ordinary Afghans expressed optimism that they were casting ballots for a new era _ despite a controversy over allegations of electoral fraud. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Dalziel)
President Bush talks about the elections in Afghanistan as he speaks to supporters in St. Louis, the morning after his second debate with his Democratic opponent, Sen. John Kerry, Saturday, Oct. 9, 2004. He also affirmed the reelection of Iraq War ally, Prime Minister John Howard of Australia. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
nice photo.
hopefully some DNC or moveon thugs won't vandalize the place.
Afghan men stand in line as they prepare to cast their vote in a polling station in the southern Afghani city of Kandahar Saturday Oct. 9, 2004. As people lined up to vote across this long-suffering country, where 100,000 security forces including U.S. troops were deployed to thwart attacks from Taliban insurgents, ordinary Afghans expressed optimism that they were casting ballots for a new era _ despite a controversy over allegations of electoral fraud.. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Dalziel)
Afghan refugees living in Pakistan stand in a line to vote in Afghanistan's presidential elections in the western border city of Chaman October 9, 2004. A woman of 19 who fled Afghanistan's long civil war made history on Saturday by casting the first vote in her country's first direct presidential election, before rivals of the incumbent threw the poll in to confusion by declaring a boycott. REUTERS/Saeed Ali Achakzai
A combination image shows three different methods of inking Afghan voters fingers to show they have voted during the presidential election in Kabul October 9, 2004. The image at left shows an Afghan woman receiving her identification card back after dipping her finger in ink. The image at center shows an election official coloring the thumb of an Afghan woman with a marker after dipping it in the tub of ink. The image at right shows an election official coloring the thumb of an Afghan woman with a marker. Afghanistan's first-ever presidential election was thrown into confusion on Saturday after all of President Hamid Karzai's rivals said they were boycotting the poll because of irregularities. REUTERS/Caren Firouz
Afghan presidential candidate Massouda Jalal speaks with journalists at her campaign headquarters in Kabul October 9, 2004. Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s first-ever presidential election was thrown into confusion on Saturday after all of President Hamid Karzai's rivals said they were boycotting the poll because of irregularities. REUTERS/Caren Firouz
All of President Hamid Karzai's rivals in Afghanistan's historic elections on October 9, 2004 have decided to boycott the poll because of irregularities. Fifteen of 18 candidates on the ballot agreed to join the boycott, contender Abdul Satar Serat said. That left only President Hamid Karzai in the running as the final two on the ballot withdrew in his favour earlier this week. Combination file photo shows Afghanistan's 18 presidential shows from (top row L-R) Abdul Latif Pidram, Hamid Karzai, Homayoon Shah Asifi, Mir Mohammad Mahfoz Nidaie, Mohammad Mohaqiq, Sayed Ishaq Gilani (middle row L-R) Abdul Satar Serat, Abdul Hafiz Mansoor, Ghulam Farooq Nijrabi, Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai, Abdul Hasib Aryan, Wakil Mangul (bottom row L-R) Abdul Hadi Khalilzai, Mohammad Ibrahim Rashid, Mohammad Younus Qanoni, Masooda Jalal, Sayed Abdul Hadi Dabir and Abdul Rashid Dostum. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood/Files
Ghousuddin, Afghan refugee from Lagman province of Afghanistan (news - web sites) holds his registration card after casting his vote in the Afghanistan's presidential election at Kacha Garhi refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan on Saturday, Oct. 9, 2004. (AP Photo/B. K. Bangash)
TexKat, that is great! I saved the pic and the caption and
I hope to make a pic with the caption all on one pic.I'll post it to you here when it's done. Thanks.
Ping
That would be great MeekOneGOP.
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Thanks again, Kat! I made a montage of several pics, including that one:
Thanks MeekOneGOP. That looks great.
Thank you. :^D
By Raju Gopalakrishnan
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan officials were due to begin counting votes on Monday after a controversial presidential election that was in danger of being scrapped but is more likely to be a turning point in the history of the war-torn nation.
Ballot boxes from Saturday's election were being opened at counting centers across the country, a crucial stage in the impoverished Islamic country's road to democracy.
Millions of Afghans participated enthusiastically in the country's first direct presidential poll, ignoring threats by militant Taliban insurgents, but it ended in controversy after most of the candidates announced a boycott because a system to prevent vote fraud had collapsed.
President Hamid Karzai said on Sunday that some of the candidates who had called for a boycott had changed their mind and were willing to accept its legitimacy.
"Some of the esteemed candidates have rejected the boycotting of the election," Karzai told a news conference. "And we are hopeful that other candidates do not ignore the national jubilation and let the votes be counted.
"The Afghan people voted yesterday in millions and that is what I see," he added. "I am blinded to everything else. It was a celebration, I'm thrilled."
The problem was the indelible ink put on the finger of everyone who voted to stop them voting again. Some election workers used the wrong pen to mark voters, and the ordinary marker ink was quickly washed off.
And with questions over the late issue of 10.5 million voter cards in a population of about 28 million with only about half of them adults, there were accusations of illegal multiple voting.
The election authority -- the Joint Election Management Body (JEMB) -- has said it will investigate the irregularities but counting would take place as scheduled. After the complaints, the JEMB had considered postponing the vote, but decided against it.
Officials said completing the count could take up to three weeks and it could take almost as much time to complete the investigation.
INDEPENDENT COMMISSION?
One election official said it was possible that the investigation would be handed over to an independent commission, but no decision had been taken yet.
Any controversy could be worrying for a nation made up of a patchwork of ethnic groups and often warring tribes, and held together for the last three years by Karzai's interim government. But at least two candidates -- the lone woman in the fray, Massouda Jalal, and Hazara chieftain Mohammad Mohaqiq -- appeared to back away from the deadlock on Sunday and said they would accept the result of an investigation into the irregularities.
"I think at least among the main candidates, an agreement will be possible," said the European Union's envoy to Afghanistan, Francesc Vendrell, who held talks with candidates including Mohaqiq.
The international community is keen that the election be widely accepted as legitimate. Western donors have pumped in aid into Afghanistan after the collapse of the Taliban and the United Nations has been closely involved in the election, which many believe will endorse the U.S.-backed interim government.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder visits Afghanistan on Monday and said in Pakistan on the eve of his visit: "The peaceful way elections took place and the high participation makes me optimistic even though there have been some problems.
"I am convinced that if there have been misdoings or some mistakes with the election the United Nations and the international observers will find that out."
Saturday's vote came three years after U.S.-led forces invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime for harboring Osama bin Laden, architect of the Sept. 11 attacks.
President Bush, facing his own election battle next month, has claimed the Afghan vote as a foreign policy success and is hoping it can be mirrored in Iraq.
Belated bump of HISTORY in the making...
lurkers who haven't seen it yet need to check post 45...for the first Afghan voter.
(the first in Aghanistan's five-thousand year history, at least according to
radio news)
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