POLITICS: Afghan Polls Close Peacefully, Opposition Claims Fraud, page 1

Afghan Polls Close Peacefully, Opposition Cries Foul

Polls in Afghanistan closed today and have begun to be tallied amid opposition cries of foul. The purported trouble comes in the form of ink used to mark voters' hands in an effort to prevent double voting. Amid these concerns, however, citizens appear happy to just have the chance at voting and were unencumbered by threats of terror, which failed to materialize.

reuters.myway.com
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's historic presidential election closed on Saturday without any of the feared large-scale violence, but the vote was thrown into turmoil when most candidates said a flawed process made the poll invalid.

All 15 of President Hamid Karzai's rivals said they were withdrawing from the election because systems to prevent illegal multiple voting had gone awry. The move effectively left Karzai as the only candidate in the fray.

Election officials refused to halt the process, which appeared to have been embraced enthusiastically by most voters across the rugged Islamic nation despite fears that many would be too afraid to participate

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Although tainted by possible voter irregularities, Karzai appears to be in line for a win by a significant margin. I wonder how this will be spun by the various political pundits?

(links)
BBC
ATS

[edit on 9-10-2004 by Netchicken]