| Home > Central Asia >> Afghanistan | |
Karzai and rival both claim victory
The Australian - August 22, 2009
Amanda Hodge, Kabul – Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his closest rival, Abdullah Abdullah, both claimed election victory yesterday, less than 24 hours after polls closed and counting began in the country's second presidential elections.
A spokesman for Mr Karzai told The Weekend Australian that reports of vote counts from observers in provinces across the country pointed to an outright win for the election favourite.
"Our understanding is we have done very well in the campaign and our count will be good," Karzai spokesman Siddiq Siddiqi said yesterday.
"It's very early to claim a victory. The IEC (Independent Election Commission) does not announce that until the counting has finished, but our observers from the provinces say the findings show our candidate is ahead. It's our understanding we're on track for a first-round victory."
But a spokesman for Dr Abdullah said initial poll results pointed to a comprehensive first-round victory for Mr Karzai's former foreign minister, and now main political rival. "The result of the election right now looks very good for Dr Abdullah," Fazil Sanchalaki said yesterday.
"Only in Kandahar, Wardak and Ghazni (Pashtun areas hit by election-day violence) is it not very clear. But in other provinces Dr Abdullah is very high, with 62 per cent compared to Mr Karzai's 32 per cent."
A spokesperson for Afghanistan's IEC refused to comment other than to say such claims had been anticipated but could not be verified until all the votes had been counted.
Officials conceded voter turnout was considerably lower this election than in the country's first presidential poll in 2004 because of Taliban warnings of violence, particularly in the south and some areas of the north where the Islamic extremists delivered on their threat to disrupt the vote.
A low turnout in the Pashtun south – the centre of the Taliban insurgency but the heartland of Karzai support – would boost Dr Abdullah's chances. The strong voter turnout in the north, in cities such as Mazar-e-Sharif, was also a good sign for his campaign.
But Thomas Ruttig, an official with the Afghan Analyst Network, said his observations of vote-counting at the largest polling centre in Gardez, capital of the strife-torn southeast province of Paktiya, suggested strong support for Mr Karzai.
"I was there at the closing of that centre – where something like 4500 people voted – and two-thirds of the votes Karzai won. And this is Gardez centre, which has a substantial Tajik minority that would support Abdullah," Mr Ruttig said.
"I would assume on the periphery, where there are only Pashtun people, Karzai's vote would be even higher." The Abdullah campaign has alleged "very large-scale fraud" in at least three of the country's 34 provinces where Mr Karzai had been expected to run well but voter turnout appeared low.
Mr Karzai's supporters have lodged complaints of voter intimidation by Abdullah campaigners outside the polling centres.
In the southern province of Kandahar, a young election observer said constant rocket attacks had largely discouraged voters from turning out.
And in nearby Taliban-dominated Oruzgan Province, where Australian soldiers helped to secure the polling stations, there were reports of rocket attacks and poor voter numbers. Some polling centres recorded barely 100 votes.
Official turnout numbers are unlikely to be known for several days, but IEC official Zekria Barakzai estimated that between 40 and 50 per cent of the country's 17 million registered voters cast ballots – far lower than the 70 per cent who voted in the presidential election in 2004.
Counting began at polling centres across the country immediately after voting closed at 5pm yesterday, but the preliminary results are not expected until at least Tuesday.
The final result will not be announced until after all election-day complaints have been investigated by the independent Electoral Complaints Commission.
By 5pm on Thursday, the ECC had received more than 130 official complaints, including many from the major candidates, but it was anticipating far greater numbers as the ballot boxes – which also carry the official complaints envelopes – trickle in.
The ECC will adjudicate on all serious allegations of rigging, including those relating to ballot box stuffing, vote tampering and many complaints that the supposedly indelible ink used to prevent multiple voting was easily washed off.
ECC chairman Grant Kippen, a former adviser at the 2007 East Timor elections, told The Weekend Australian he was expecting as many as 4000 complaints in coming days, compared with 1500 received in Afghanistan's 2005 provincial elections.
"It's still too early to tell what the magnitude and quality of those complaints will be," Mr Kippen said.
See also:
 |