'Convincing Evidence' Of Fraud In Afghan Votes
A U.N.-backed commission ordered a re-count Tuesday of ballots where it had found "convincing evidence" of fraud in Afghanistan's presidential election. The ballots in question are at polling stations with a high voter turnout or where one presidential candidate got an overwhelming majority of the vote.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.
We have two developments today in Afghanistan's presidential election. And they come from two different authorities.
First, Afghan election officials have more or less declared President Hamid Karzai the winner with about 54 percent of the votes counted so far, which would be enough if that held up, that he could retain his office without a second round, without a runoff election. At the same time, though, a United Nations backed election watchdog today has ordered a recount of a number of ballots in that same presidential election.
NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is in Kabul. She has been covering this election and she'll help us sort this out. Why a recount, Soraya?
SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON: Well, there are a lot of concerns about what they are calling irregularities. They, being the Electoral Complaints Commission which is a five-member commission - three international people on it and two Afghans - that have been looking into the fraud allegations that are so widespread.
And what they found is in the three provinces that they've concentrated on, there are so many irregularities that they are now calling for the election officials in Afghanistan to do a recount of any polling center that had a 100 percent turnout or that had 95 percent of the votes going for a particular candidate.
And the reason they're doing this is because you have a day of elections in which the Taliban were launching many attacks. There was a fair amount of voter apathy. And so, the turnout - such a turnout, 100 percent turnout on paper will be questionable, as would that many votes going for one particular candidate.
INSKEEP: And we've certainly heard some dubious-sounding stories on our air over the last couple of weeks. I do want to ask, though, Afghan election officials have said that they already threw out a couple hundred thousand questionable ballots that they still have millions that they consider to be valid. Do Afghan officials have to do what this United Nations watchdog tells them to do and go in and recount election that they seem to think is already decided?
NELSON: Well, certainly that's the way it's supposed to work. Now, the way it will work is another question. The independent election commission which is this Afghan body that's been conducting the elections and doing the tally, they came forth today and said that they had some questions about this order that apparently the Dari and the English versions of the letters that were sent were different.
And so, they've sent them back for clarification. They also said that if they agree to do any recount or if there is any recount that's really called for, it won't be done until the preliminary tally is completed. In other words, where the results will be announced, but not certified. But they will be announced.
INSKEEP: Granting that it's early here, are there enough votes at stake that could be recounted that it could actually overturn the results of this election, which seems to be allegedly leaning toward Hamid Karzai?
NELSON: Well, that certainly seems to be a strong possibility, given the fact that the election problems that the commission is seeing are very broad indeed. And so, yes, I think that certainly is something that could happen.
INSKEEP: Okay. Well, what are the top candidates saying then?
NELSON: Well, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, who's the main rival for President Karzai and he's coming now with 28 percent of the preliminary tallies thus far compared to President Karzai's 54 percent, they are very happy. They've been alleging this fraud all along and they feel it's been completely ignored. So they now feel that the Electoral Complaints Commission is in fact very right to do what they're doing and they're hailing it.
There has been no comment from the Karzai campaign thus far. And it's felt that most of the votes that are going to be recounted will, in fact, impact on Mr. Karzai's count.
INSKEEP: NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is in Kabul, Afghanistan where authorities have come closer to declaring President Hamid Karzai the winner of an election even as another authority orders a recount. Soraya, thanks very much.
NELSON: You're welcome, Steve. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.
