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Afghan poll body orders vote recounts in 7 provinces

27 September 2010 18:12 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Afghanistan’s election body has ordered a partial recount of votes from seven of the country’s 34 provinces on suspicion of fraud, potentially delaying the results of a parliamentary poll further, an official said on Monday, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
The Independent Election Commission (IEC) may also push for the recount of ballots in other provinces after the September 18 ballot, which was hit by widespread allegations of fraud.
"We have obtained evidences which show that the results were suspicious and ordered a recount," Zekriya Barakzai, a commissioner for the government-appointed IEC, told Reuters.
Barakzai said the commission had also declared invalid all votes cast in five polling stations in eastern Khost province.
The election passed off relatively smoothly despite a Taliban threat to disrupt the poll, although hundreds of polling centers were unable to open because of poor security and thousands of complaints have been lodged.
Results of the election are being closely watched in Washington ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama’s planned war strategy review in December, which is expected to examine the pace and scale of U.S. troop withdrawals after nine years of war.
A flawed poll could also weigh on Obama when his administration faces mid-term Congressional elections in November amid sagging public support for the war, with violence at its worst since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.
President Hamid Karzai’s credibility with ordinary Afghans and his Western backers is also at stake, with the memory of his fraud-riddled 2009 re-election still fresh and allegations of graft in his government creating tension at home and abroad.
Barakzai said an investigation had been launched to determine who was involved in the possible vote fraud in the seven provinces -- Kunduz, Balkh, Takhar, Badakhshan and Parwan provinces in the north and northeast, Logar to the south of Kabul and Khost in the east.
The final results, originally set to be declared on October 30, may face more delays because of the recount, Barakzai said.
As of last week, the U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission had received about 3,000 formal complaints about the parliamentary poll before and after the vote, and fears the number may double.
Afghan and foreign observers have praised election officials for staging a vote in the middle of a violent insurgency.
At least 17 people died in attacks across the country but there were no major incidents in Afghanistan’s big cities on the scale that marred last year’s presidential poll. Attacks, however, were more widespread than last year.
Both President Hamid Karzai and the top U.N. diplomat in Afghanistan, Staffan de Mistura, have said it is too early to describe the poll as a success.