Election Complaints Overwhelm Afghan Voter Commission
Sean Maroney 21 September 2010
Afghanistan's Electoral Complaints Commission says it has received nearly 3,000 formal complaints about Saturday's parliamentary elections.
The U.N.-backed commission said Tuesday that more than 1,300 of those complaints have been filed since election day, with the rest lodged before the vote.
Election observers had major concerns about the vote, including allegations that voters, in some cases, were intimidated or coerced by local warlords. Other reports noted incidents of ballot-stuffing, repeat voting and the use of fraudulent voter identification cards.
Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission has said cases of fraud were "inevitable" and that is working to eliminate the effect from the final results.
The ECC has set a Tuesday deadline for Afghans to file complaints.
Election officials say nearly four million Afghans voted for candidates competing for 249 seats in the lower house of parliament, known as the wolesi jirga.
Voters braved violence to head to the polls, with at least 22 people killed and more than 280 insurgent attacks reported throughout the country.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
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