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| Afghanistan |
| Afghan recount to cover 10% of polling stations |
| 2009-09-16 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] A partial recount ordered to prevent fraud in last month's Afghan presidential election will cover more than 10 percent of polling stations, the head of a U.N.-backed watchdog said on Tuesday. The announcement means that enough votes are likely to be subjected to the fraud investigation to potentially alter the outcome, prolonging uncertainty over the result for weeks or months. Main opposition candidate Abdullah Abdullah said that if a result is delayed into next year, he would favor a transitional government led by neither himself nor President Hamid Karzai. Abdullah told Reuters he was in constant discussions with Western officials about the elections and Afghanistan's political future, but he was not involved in talks about forming a coalition with Karzai to end the stand-off. Grant Kippen, the Canadian, U.N.-appointed head of the Electoral Complaints Commission, which has the power to veto the election result, told Reuters 2,516 polling stations were subject to a recount order his commission issued last week. "That will be the number of polling stations that will be covered by that order to audit and recount," he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |