Karzai, Rival Both Claim Victory

Runoff election looms as prez bows to pressure

(NEWSER) - Hamid Karzai will bow to international pressure and accept the results of a UN-backed recount of Afghanistan's presidential election, US and European officials tell the New York Times. The incumbent will publicly acknowledge he fell short of 50% of the first-round vote as early as today, setting the stage for a runoff ballot against Abdullah Abdullah. Under Afghanistan's constitution a runoff must be held within two weeks, but logistical difficulties and the onset of winter may keep the country's political future uncertain for months. More»

Afghan president's campaign allegedly detained tribal leader, closed polls

(NEWSER) - Tribal leaders in southern Afghanistan make the strongest allegations yet of ballot fraud, telling Dexter Filkins of the New York Times that in their district, "Hamid Karzai's people stuffed all the ballot boxes." Members of the Bariz tribe, who endorsed challenger Abdullah Abdullah, say aides to Karzai's brother—himself a hugely powerful provincial leader nicknamed "King of the South"—detained the district's governor on election day and closed all the polling places. They then shipped 23,900 ballots to Kabul, every single one a vote for Karzai. More»

With early vote count due Tuesday, Abdullah alleges fraud

(NEWSER) - Abdullah Abdullah, Hamid Karzai’s strongest political rival in the Afghan presidential race, is charging his opponent with engineering widespread voter fraud in the southern and eastern regions, the Guardian reports. A watchdog group controlled by international officials, which says the official election commission is controlled by Karzai supporters, has received 225 complaints of voter intimidation and outright fraud, some 25 of which could affect the outcome of the election. Early election results are due on Tuesday. More»

(NEWSER) - The supposedly indelible ink used to mark voters' fingers in today's Afghanistan election rubs off easily with household detergent, raising fears of widespread ballot fraud. Campaigners for Abdullah Abdullah, the main opposition candidate, found they could remove the ink with minimal effort, and a Guardian journalist scrubbed his finger clean in a matter of minutes. It could spell a big problem: As many as 3 million counterfeit voting cards are in circulation in Afghanistan. More»

Widespread fraud reported in nearly a third of provinces

(NEWSER) - From stuffing ballot boxes to arresting election workers to, incredibly, haggling over the sales price of a vote, Afghanistan's election is so rife with corruption and fraud that the results are questionable in one-third of its provinces, reports the New York Times. And as a test of Afghanistan's nascent democracy, “From an overall democracy-building perspective it does not look rosy,” says one anonymous diplomat. More»