Afghan Election Watchdog Warns Of Fraud In Presidential Vote

[okaawhatever]

KABUL, April 9 (Reuters) - Afghainistan's presidential election last Saturday may have suffered a significant degree of fraud, the country's election complaints commission said, warning that all votes cast irregularly would be thrown out.

The final result is not expected for weeks as ballot boxes have to be returned to Kabul from distant corners of the insurgency-racked country, with some carried down from the mountains by mule.

"I want to say election fraud did take place and it might not have been a small amount," Abdul Satar Sadaat, the head of Afghanistan's Independent Election Complaints Commission, told a news conference on Wednesday.

Unless there is an outright winner with more than 50 percent of the vote, there will be run-off held between the two leading candidates at the end of May.

Early returns indicated the frontrunners were former foreign ministers Abdullah Abdullah, and and Zalmay Rassoul, and former finance minister Ashraf Ghani, but it was too early to identify clear trends from results at a few polling stations in Kabul.

Whereas the 2009 election, which saw Hamid Hazai re-elected president for a second term, was marred by large scale ballot box stuffing, according to the National Democratic Institute, the latest poll has received even more complaints, though most referred to the behaviour of election officials.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/09/afghan-election-fraud_n_5116297.html?utm_hp_ref=world

Man, this just sucks. I had so hoped they would have fair elections.