Afghan elections: Counting underway after polls close

The Afghan election commission said on Saturday that vote counting is underway after polling in the country’s crucial presidential and provincial councils’ elections ended peacefully. 


According to officials, most polling centers opened at 8 am but some opened an hour later due to security measures, rainy weather and late arrival of election workers. As a result, the election officials had extended polling time by one hour.

Millions of Afghans ignored the Taliban threats and thronged to the polling centers despite bad weather and rain in many parts of the country.

An Afghan official overturns a ballot box before vote counting can begin. PHOTO: REUTERS

Officials said that people polled votes in large numbers in many parts of the country including the areas considered to be under the influence of the Taliban. Nearly 2,600 individuals also contested in the provincial council elections.

The Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Saturday announced more than 200 of 6,400 voting centers across the country remained closed due to security concerns.

Officials described the process as more successful than expected. However, in some parts of Afghanistan people complained of rigging and a shortage of ballot papers.

One of the front-runners, Abdullah Abdullah, told the media that he had been in close contact with the elections officials and conveyed concerns over the shortage of ballots in several polling stations.

Election officials said they had received hundreds of complaints regarding irregularities. The people could register their complaints against candidates, election observers and officials, officials said, also stating that the results of the complaints will be announced next month after investigation.

The Taliban had issued instructions to their fighters to disrupt the elections. However, they did not succeed in creating any major problem during the polling.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid Saturday claimed that their fighters have carried out over 200 attacks, inflicting casualties. He also said that most of the polling centers had been closed.

The Afghan media quoted officials as saying there had been a few minor incidents of violence but no major attack was reported from any part of the country. The media also reported violence resulting in 10 deaths including some policemen.

The polls come at a time of increased uncertainty for the central Asian nation as American troops look to withdraw from a 13-year occupation that began after the 9/11 attacks. President Hamid Karzai, who has led Afghanistan since the American occupation, is bound by term limits, and will step down after this term is completed. The build up to the election has been marred by violence as the Taliban stepped up its campaign to dissuade Afghans from voting in an election that, it thinks, is a sham.



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IEC's Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani tells media that election officials are ready to manage second-round of voting if need be.

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Independent Election Commission says 65% of all voters were male, 35% female.

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An Afghan voter shows her inked finger after she cast her ballot at a local polling station in Kabul on April 5, 2014. PHOTO: AFP

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Afghan villagers carry election materials on donkeys' backs in the Dara-e-Noor district of Nangarhar province in Eastern Afghanistan on April 4, 2014. PHOTO: AFP

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An Afghan policeman keeps watch as Afghan voters line up to vote at a local polling station in Ghazni on April 5, 2014.  PHOTO: AFP Rahmatullah Alizadah

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More than 350,000 Afghan troops were deployed, guarding against attacks on polling stations and voters. The capital, Kabul, was sealed off by rings of roadblocks and checkpoints. In the city of Kandahar, cradle of the Taliban insurgency, the mood was tense. Vehicles were not allowed to move on the roads and checkpoints were set up at every intersection.

Reuters

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   An Afghan security personnel keeps watch near the Serena hotel after the attack on 21 March, 2014. Photo: Reuters

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Most people expect the election will be better run than the chaotic 2009 vote that handed the outgoing president, Hamid Karzai, a second term amid massive fraud and ballot stuffing. The stronger the next president's mandate, the less vulnerable Afghanistan could be to instability. One major concern is that it could take several months for a winner to be declared at a time when the country desperately needs a leader to stem rising violence as foreign troops prepare to leave.

Reuters

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   Muhammad Irfan/ Zia Ahmad Yousafzai

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Voting was largely peaceful in Afghanistan's presidential election on Saturday, with only isolated attacks on polling stations as a country racked by decades of chaos embarked on its first ever democratic transfer of power. A roadside bomb killed two policemen and wounded two others in the southern city of Qalat as they were returning from a polling station, while four voters were wounded in an explosion at a voting centre in the southeastern province of Logar. There were no reports of more serious attacks on an election that Taliban insurgents had vowed to derail, branding it a U.S.-backed sham, and many voters said they were determined to make their voices heard despite the threats. "I am here to vote and I am not afraid of any attacks," said Haji Ramazan as he stood in line at a polling station in rain-drenched Kabul. "This is my right, and no one can stop me." Reuters

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An election official waits for voters at a polling station in Adraskan district if Herat province April 5, 2014. PHOTO: REUTERS

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Afghan voters line up outside a local polling station in Kabul on April 5, 2014. Photo: AFP/ SHAH MARAI

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Afghan President Hamid Karzai shows his inker finger as he makes a statement to the press and on live television after having cast his ballot at a local polling station in Kabul on April 5, 2014. AFP PHOTO/WAKIL KOHSAR