Legitimacy concerns over Afghanistan elections

The Afghanistan elections were marred by widespread fraud and intimidation, according to electoral observers.

A report on Thursday's voting in the second-ever presidential elections has exposed incidents of violence and fraud at the polling booths.

Afghanistan's Free and Fair Election Foundation observed incidents of multiple and underage voting, illiterates being told who to vote for and election officials being ejected from some polling stations.

Election officials were also seen were pressuring people to vote for certain candidates, while individual voters were caught carrying boxes of ballot cards to polling sites to use for themselves.

About 26 Afghans were killed Taliban attacks aimed at destabilizing the elections, however this was far less than had been feared.

The Free and Fair Election Foundation, which had around 7,000 observers stationed around the country, claimed Taliban militants also cut off the ink-stained fingers of voters in Kandahar.

Two men, who had dipped their fingers in purple ink as a fraud prevention measure, were attacked shortly after leaving the polling booths.

The Taliban threats are being blamed for the relatively poor turn-out, which election officials have estimated could be as low as 40%, a dramatic fall from the 70% who voted in the country's first-ever elections in 2004.

President Hamid Karzai is expected to beat main rival Dr Abdullah Abdullah although both men have claimed victory.

If neither candidate gets 50 percent in the first round, they will go to a second round runoff. Initial preliminary results won’t be announced until Tuesday, and final results won’t be certified until mid-September.

UK forces in the country launched Operation Panther's Claw in the run up to the elections to try and safeguard voters from the Taliban.

The opera ration has been heralded as a success but also contributed to a sharp rise in British casualties leading the death-toll for UK servicemen to rise to 206 and raise questions over our army's continuing presence in the country.

Source:The times