Afghan vote sours as foes of Karzai quit, claim fraud

By Pamela Constable
The Washington Post

PAULA BRONSTEIN / GETTY IMAGES Afghan women and men wait in line in Afghanistan's first democratic election at a polling station set up in a tent at a school in Kabul. Women voted separately from men.

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The controversy threatened to ruin the credibility of a historic poll that has cost foreign donors almost $200 million, attracted more than 10 million Afghans to register as voters and been viewed as a milestone in Afghanistan's transformation into a stable, modernizing country after 25 years of war and turmoil.

The candidates' complaints stood in sharp contrast to the enthusiastic spirit of hundreds of thousands of Afghans who lined up outside village schools and mosques on a chilly, windswept morning to cast the first vote of their lives. Whoever won, they told reporters over and over, they hoped the election would bring peace and security.

The national election commission, composed of members from Afghanistan and the United Nations, said yesterday that it would allow the election to proceed despite the candidates' protests, but that it would investigate complaints of irregularities. The polls closed officially at 6:30 p.m., and ballot-counting was expected to take days because many polling stations were located in remote areas.

"Given the complexities of this electoral process, there have inevitably been some technical problems," said J. Ray Kennedy, an election commission official. But given the large turnout and "peaceful environment" of the monitored vote, it would be "unjustified" to halt the election and deny many Afghans their fundamental rights, he said.

Karzai, favored to win a majority of votes and avoid a runoff election, insisted last night that the election had been "free and fair." He urged all candidates to accept the results and to "respect our people, because in the dust and snow and rain, they waited hours and hours to vote."

But his opponents, a variety of ethnic politicians, former officials, tribal leaders and professionals, declared repeatedly that the election should be nullified, suspended and held again, largely because of a widespread mix-up over indelible ink that was supposed to mark voters' thumbs to prevent them from voting more than once.

During a daylong tour of polling sites in three provinces, a reporter saw many instances in which poll workers mistakenly inked voters' thumbs with black marking pens intended to be used on ballots, instead of the purple indelible ink supplied to prevent fraud.

	President Hamid Karzai is heavily favored.

Opposition candidates met for much of the afternoon at the home of Abdul Sattar Sirat, a former Cabinet minister and one of Karzai's challengers. "Any government that comes to power as a result of today's election has no credibility and no validity," Sirat said afterward.

Opposition candidates alleged that large numbers of people had voted several times and that government officials had pressured some to vote for Karzai.

"We have received reports of people voting 10 and 15 times," said Homayoun Shah Assefy, a lawyer who is running for president. "Under these conditions, elections have no meaning. We do not want a boycott, we want a postponement, and we want better supervision."

To some extent, the suspicion of multiple voting was exacerbated by the very success of the voter registration drive. Initially, experts predicted perhaps 7 million to 8 million people would register, but the final number was more than 10.5 million. Critics said many people had registered several times, but international and Afghan officials said there was little that could be done about it.

The controversy shocked Afghan and international election officials, who had warned of attacks at the polls by Taliban guerrillas and other anti-democratic forces, but who never expected the candidates to cast doubt on the process.

There were numerous scattered incidents of violence and anti-election plots reported, but most were in remote provinces. An unprecedented deployment of nearly 100,000 Afghan and foreign security forces sealed off roads and guarded most polling centers.

Most voters appeared to find the first-time experience confusing and a little intimidating, but election workers carefully explained the procedure, and voters of all ages seemed eager and proud to be taking part.

"This is something Afghans have wished for deeply, and for a long time," said Gulab Niakzai, 47, a colonel in the new national army who had just voted at a high school in Kargah, a district west of Kabul. "We want a clean government and an honest, patriotic president," he said. "Every Afghan should think very carefully about this decision, because we are building a future for our children."

On a highway in Wardak province, men and women trudged toward a distant polling station. Rassool Dad, 25, a mason who recently brought his family back from long exile in Iran, said proudly, "We are going to elect our president. We want to stop the warlords and the bloodshed. We heard that the Taliban might attack polling stations, but if we were afraid we wouldn't come out of our houses."

Occasional problems with logistics and staffing at polling places, especially the complicated arrangements allowing women to vote separately, also seemed to be handled good-naturedly. In De Afghanan, a village in Wardak, a local Muslim cleric had offered his front parlor as a women's voting site, but no female election workers had arrived from Kabul.

"We called the U.N. several times, but no one has come," said Mahmad Aziz, 60, the local election supervisor. Finally he designated male elders to act as go-betweens so local women could vote without being seen.

"We want everyone to be able to vote freely," he said. "We took an oath that none of us would put pressure on anyone."

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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