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Afghanistan set to start counting votes
Afghanistan was set to start counting votes on Wednesday from a historic presidential election after several candidates backed off from declaring the poll illegal. The ballots poured into collection centres across the country, brought by donkey, road and helicopter, with officials expecting to start counting sometime on Wednesday. US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad has been influential in persuading several rivals of frontrunner President Hamid Karzai to abandon a boycott of Saturday's landmark poll over what they said were fraud and irregularities. The Afghan-UN Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) is setting up a panel to investigate. Privately, election officials say few votes were fraudulent and would have no major effect on the poll. Karzai's chief rival, Yunus Qanuni, on Monday withdrew a boycott call, issued after suspicions emerged of illegal multiple voting after a mix-up at some polling stations over the type of ink used to mark voters' fingers. Another main candidate, Uzbek general Abdul Rashid Dostum, came to Kabul and met Khalilzad, but there was no immediate word on the outcome of the meeting. Agreement by Dostum to recognise the election, joining Qanuni and Hazara leader Mohammad Mohaqiq, would signal the collapse of the boycott that had undermined a vote in which millions of Afghans turned out despite threats of attacks by Islamic fundamentalist Taleban insurgents.
Posted by: Steve White 2004-10-13 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=45790 |