Afghan Diary

Susan Ormiston

Election complaints are mounting

Last Updated: Monday, August 24, 2009 | 4:57 PM ET

By Susan Ormiston CBC News

I'd like to say I know what happened in this historic election. But there's so much smoke around these results that it is difficult to figure out what is really going on.

At this juncture, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the ex-foreign minister and closest challenger to President Hamid Karzai, is taking a big swipe at his former boss.

Abdullah says Karzai supporters stuffed ballot boxes, blocked access to voting sites by election monitors and intimidated voters.

The challenger: former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah is charging vote fraud. (Reuters)

In response, Karzai has said nothing publicly. Not a word. His team, though, and now his finance minister are saying he won, hands down, meaning a first-ballot victory with over 50 per cent of the vote.

The problem with this scenario is that there are already over 400 official complaints — nearly 50 substantial ones — which, if proven, would certainly affect the result.

Not for sale

It's fascinating watching Abdullah, an ophthalmologist, navigate the politics of this situation.

On Sunday, he invited the media to the back garden of his house in Kabul. He has a beautiful pomegranate tree, special, seedless pomegranates, he told me; and a big patch of basil.

There he held court, in an intimate, informal setting, railing at President Karzai and calling this election "a big fraud."

But rather than encourage his supporters to take to the streets, Iran style, he is saying that for now he will make his protest through legal channels, which is sure to drag things out and prolong the agony for the country's international backers.

So, is this political hardball from the challenger? Perhaps an attempt to better his bargaining position for a spot in a Karzai government?

Some think so, but when I asked Abdullah this directly he said, "No, I am not for sale."

A question of legitimacy

Here's what we in the international press are hearing about the election process so far, though none of this is confirmed.

• That in parts of Gazni, a province largely controlled by Taliban, election monitors were barred from the polling stations.
• That in some areas, ballots were being added until Saturday morning for a vote that official ended on Thursday evening.
• That in volatile Kandahar (Karzai's home province), the voter turnout was less than 10 per cent — not the 40-50 per cent that election officials have been suggesting.
• That in another province, the count was not carried out at the polling station as it is supposed to be; instead the ballot boxes were loaded onto a truck and taken to the district centre and no election monitors were allowed on the truck.
• That in one polling station, 50 people voted, but 2,000 ballots ended up in the box.
• That over 600 polling stations designated for women only didn't open at all.

We can't independently verify these complaints, that's the work of Afghanistan's electoral complaints commission, which is run by Canadian Grant Kippen.

I spoke to him today and he seemed unflappable, which is no mean feat given that all the election-monitoring groups, international and domestic, are turning to his team now for guidance.

The ECC is today dispatching investigators to try and get to the bottom of these many mysteries. If it warrants, it can order the votes nullified in some areas.

We should know more by Tuesday, when preliminary results may be released. But it is looking more likely that there will be a runoff vote between Abdullah and Karzai, if for no other reason than to try and restore legitimacy to the election.

Hamid Karzai is still seen as the front-runner but the vote itself is starting to smell.