Recounts due at 10% of Afghan polling stations
Last Updated: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 | 12:17 PM ET
CBC News
Electoral Complaints Commission workers look for patterns of irregularities of the disputed ballots in Afghanistan's presidential election. (Manish Swarup/Associated Press)About 10 per cent of the polling stations from Afghanistan's presidential election will need to be recounted because of possible irregularities with the results.
Of the approximately 26,300 polling stations in Afghanistan for the Aug. 20 vote, more than 2,500 will need to be audited and will be recounted, Grant Kippen, chair of the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission, said Tuesday.
Decisions made by the commission — composed of three international members appointed by the UN and two Afghans — are final under Afghanistan's electoral law.
Last week, the commission ordered Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission to audit and recount ballot boxes from stations that had 100 per cent turnout or where an individual candidate received more than 95 per cent of the vote.
"We need to be thorough about the job that we need to do," Kippen said.
Widespread allegations of ballot-box stuffing and suspicious tallies are casting doubt on the legitimacy of the Aug. 20 vote as the country awaits final results.
'Give us clarification'
Waheed Omar, incumbent President Hamid Karzai's campaign spokesman, said that the campaign has not received any notification about the recounts.
"They will have to give us clarification as to why and how they are doing that," Omar said.
Fazel Sancharaki, spokesman for rival Abdullah Abdullah's campaign, said Tuesday that the team believes that closer to 25 per cent of the polling stations should be completely voided for fraud.
"We expected much more," Sancharaki said.
The European Union, meanwhile, has added its voice to those urging the commission to thoroughly investigate all complaints.
"We will press for an investigation of all fraud allegations," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Tuesday. "It is important that the elected president is recognized and respected by the entire population of Afghanistan."
The 27-nation bloc fears doubts about the Afghan regime's electoral legitimacy would make it more difficult to justify the military effort and spending billions in EU aid to taxpayers at home.
The commission has received more than 2,800 complaints about polling day and the counting process, of which 726 have been deemed serious and specific enough to affect polling station results.
Fraud allegations in Karzai strongholds
The most serious allegations of fraud have been lodged in Ghazni, Paktika and Kandahar provinces, where support for incumbent President Hamid Karzai is strongest.
Nearly all the ballots from 51 polling stations in Kandahar province, five polling stations in Paktika province and 27 in Ghazni province have already been ordered excluded from the final tally by the electoral commission because they've been found to show "clear and convincing evidence of fraud."
The investigation and the ordered recounts could mean it will be months before a certified winner is declared, officials have said.
Karzai's bid for re-election was boosted Saturday by news that he took 54.3 per cent of last month's vote, according to partial results from the country's electoral commission.
With slightly less than 93 per cent of all polling stations counted, the tally gave Abdullah 28.1 per cent.
If those results hold — with Karzai taking more than 50 per cent — it would be enough for him to claim victory without having to hold a run-off vote.
With files from The Associated Press
