Tehran, August 23: Reports of widespread and systematic fraud and intimidation continued to emerge amid delays in the counting of votes in the Afghan elections, raising the spectre of turbulence when the results are announced.
Allegations of ballot-rigging were particularly prevalent in the southern Pashtun belt. The region, which holds the key to the contest, also suffered from drastically low turnout due to Taliban violence and threats. There were accounts of the insurgents’ retribution against voters, including fingers being chopped off.
Afghanistan’s Free and Fair Election Foundation, the country’s biggest monitoring body for the polls, detailed instances of false tallying of votes, coercion of voters and multiple and under-age voting. European Union observers insisted that despite problems the polls had been generally free and fair. But The Independent on Sunday, which visited polling stations on the Helmand frontline, where observers were not present because it was deemed too dangerous, witnessed apparent examples of fraud.
–Agencies