Afghan Poll Crisis Subsides-- YAY!

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Registered: 12-07-2003
Afghan Poll Crisis Subsides-- YAY!
Mon, 10-11-2004 - 7:11pm
Afghan Poll Crisis Subsides as Karzai Rivals Back Off

By David Fox

KABUL (Reuters) - The crisis surrounding Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s historic presidential election appeared to end on Monday as President Hamid Karzai's chief rival said he and other candidates were withdrawing their rejection of the weekend poll.

Millions of Afghans took part in Saturday's poll, the first time the impoverished, war-torn Islamic nation voted for a president, but all 15 of Karzai's challengers announced a boycott, saying a system to prevent multiple voting had failed.

"We want unity in this election, not a boycott," said ethnic Tajik commander Yunus Qanuni after intermediaries, including U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, interceded in the row. "The people want it and we appreciate their feelings."

Qanuni said he was speaking for several candidates but not all. But his acquiescence means the end of the most serious opposition to the poll, which was held under the shadow of threats of violence by Taliban insurgents.

Late on Monday, parts of Kabul came under rocket attack from suspected Taliban fighters who fired three rockets at the capital which landed in open fields, security forces said.

U.S.-backed Karzai, favorite to win the election, had urged his rivals to respect "national jubilation" over the vote.

An exit poll by Washington-based think tank International Republican Institute showed Karzai heading for a landslide.

President Bush (news - web sites), facing his own election battle next month, has claimed the Afghan vote as a foreign policy success and hopes it can be mirrored in war-torn Iraq (news - web sites).

With more than 12,000 survey responses recorded, Karzai had over 50 percent of the vote, enough to avoid a run-off with second-placed Qanuni.

The election commission, the Joint Election Management Body, announced a panel would investigate irregularities and asked Karzai's rivals to submit any complaints by Tuesday evening.

A commission official said counting, which could last for three weeks, would start on Wednesday. The delays were expected because of difficulties in delivering ballot boxes to counting centers. In the rugged Hindu Kush mountains, the ballots will be brought down by donkey.

One candidate said Qanuni and Hazara chieftain Mohammad Mohaqiq had been persuaded to drop their boycott.

"Khalilzad urged them to do so in return for accommodating them somehow in the future government," the candidate said.

General Abdul Rashid Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek candidate and strongman in the north, was due in Kabul within hours for consultations with the U.S. envoy.

"BREATHTAKING"

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the media had played up the negatives of the poll. "The fact is they just had an election. It's breathtaking!" he said, speaking in Macedonia.

Karzai was picked to head a transitional government after U.S.-led forces ousted the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban for refusing to hand over al Qaeda head Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) in 2001.

Afghanistan's patchwork of fiercely independent ethnic groups and often warring tribes has been held together since then by the interim government, and the international community is keen an elected government be widely accepted as legitimate.

Karzai is a Pashtun, the country's largest ethnic group, while Qanuni and Mohaqiq are from the minority Tajik and Hazara communities respectively.

Western donors have pumped aid into Afghanistan since the collapse of the Taliban, and the United Nations (news - web sites) has been closely involved in reconstruction and the election itself.

"That this election was held without major security incident is a tribute to the determination of the Afghan population," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites)'s spokesman said, and called on all candidates to resolve any disputes through lawful means.

The dispute over the poll resulted from ink daubed on voters' fingers to prevent them voting repeatedly. Some election workers used the wrong pen to mark voters, and the ordinary marker ink was quickly washed off.

Fears of multiple voting had been stoked by the late issue of a high number of voter cards -- 10.5 million in a population of about 28 million, only about half of which are adults.

Karzai and 17 other candidates were on the ballot but two withdrew in favor of the president. The winner needs 51 percent of the vote, otherwise a run-off between the top two candidates will be held in November. (With additional reporting by Sayed Salahuddin)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&e=1&u=/nm/20041011/wl_nm/afghan_dc


Edited 10/11/2004 7:15 pm ET ET by geschichtsgal