Afghanistan - elections

54 per cent for Karzai, but convincing evidence of fraud

Article published on the 2009-09-08 Latest update 2009-09-08 13:52 TU

Afghan men transport a ballot box at the Independent Election Commission in Kabul
(Photo: Reuters)

The Electoral Complaints Commission in Afghanistan has asked the Independent Election Commission to recount votes at certain polling stations which show “strong indicators” of electoral fraud. Meanwhile the UN envoy to Afghanistan announced on Tuesday that the IEC should ensure that results from the Afghan elections are clean. Partial results released on Tuesday give President Hamid Karzai 54 per cent of the vote.

In a statement released by the ECC on Tuesday they said they have “found clear and convincing evidence of fraud in a number of polling stations”.

"It hasn’t said how many polling stations, and there are more than 25,000 across the country," correspondent Lynne O'Donnell told RFI. "It hasn’t said how many votes are involved," she added.

The ECC have demanded that the IEC conduct an audit and recount based on preliminary results which indicate an exceptionally high number of presidential votes cast per station or an exceptionally high percentage of ballots cast for only one candidate.

"Officials have said briefly that it is quite likely that the investigations will delay the announcement of the final and full count," said O'Donnell.

It added that the audits must be conducted in the presence of observers from the EEC. The number of complaints recorded by the EEC as of 7 September is 2,375, while the number of “Priority A” complaints is 726.

The UN envoy to Afghanistan said on Tuesday that the electoral commission in the country should ensure that the results are clean.

Kai Eide, a Norwegian diplomat who was appointed as Special Representative to Afghanistan in March 2008, said that ballot boxes which were tainted by evidence of irregularities should be excluded from the preliminary court.

In a statement, Eide said that, “the integrity of these elections is of the utmost importance to Afghanistan and to its international partners.”

He called on the Independent Election Commission and the Electoral Complaints Commission to “redouble their efforts to ensure full rigour in their work at every stage”.

Partial results released on Tuesday give President Hamid Karzai 54 per cent of the vote, with his main rival Abdullah Abdullah securing 28 per cent of the ballot.

Although Karzai has not responded to the allegations of fraud.

"He hasn’t reacted publicly to any of the allegations that have been thrown around, especially by his main rival Dr Abdullah Abdullah," says O'Donnell.

On Sunday the IEC cancelled around 200,000 ballots due to fraud, but some commentators believe that different democratic standards do not necessarily mean there are irregularities.

"Corruption in the Afghan context is very different to what it is in more mature democracies. Decisions are generally taken on a census basis at grassroots level, so a whole village will get together and it will be decided by the elders, for instance, who they’re going to vote for," said O'Donnell.

"Its not really seen as corruption in the Afghan context, but when you’ve got international observers trying to apply modern democratic rules to a very under-developed tribal society, it makes it a little more complicated," she added.