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Afghanistan Disqualifies 28 Candidates

12 September 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Afghanistan's Electoral Complaints Commission has disqualified today 28 more candidates from the country's 18 September elections.

The disqualifications brought to 45 the number of candidates barred from the UN-backed vote for a national assembly and provincial councils.

Rights groups have expressed concern that figures implicated in major rights abuses are being allowed to stand in the elections, reinforcing a culture of impunity.

Meanwhile, Peter Erben, head of the joint UN-Afghan Electoral Management Body, said there are several districts where security forces had not yet been deployed to defend polling stations.

The Taliban militia has vowed to disrupt the parliamentary and provincial council elections with violence.

(Reuters/AFP)

Copyright (c) 2005. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org