Afghan officials cancel 1.3m votes

20/10/2010| IslamWeb

Afghan election authorities have thrown out 1.3 million votes, more than 20 per cent of the 5.6 million of ballots cast in last month's parliamentary election, officials have said.

"Turnout is around 5,600,000, the valid vote is 4,265,347, and the invalid vote is around 1,300,000," Fazil Ahmad Manawi, the head of the Independent Election Commission, said on Wednesday.

Authorities disqualified the results from 2,543 polling stations, out of 3,345 stations investigated following the September 28 election.

"224 candidates are now being referred to the Electoral Complaints Commission," Al Jazeera's Sue Torton, reporting from Kabul, said.

She said it would take another three weeks for the commission to look into the complaints.

"But people are saying the [Independent Election Commission] has done its job," Torton said.

Voting climate

Violence was low, but so was turnout during Afghanistan's second post-invasion parliamentary election.

In comparison, 6.4 million votes were cast in the 2005 parliamentary vote.

The country's presidential vote last year, on August 20, was the deadliest day of the year in Afghanistan. Early reporting suggested at least 30 people were killed, a death toll that later rose above 40.

The current parliament is stacked with former warlords and power brokers.

And many of the candidates in September's election also have ties to Afghanistan's old elite.

But despite weak political parties, powerful patronage networks, and entrenched corruption, the Wolesi Jirga often acts as a check on Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president.

PHOTO CAPTION

An Afghan policemen security checks voters outside a polling station in Kabul.

Al-Jazeera